diff --git a/cpu-miner.c b/cpu-miner.c
index 0a8d610..780ba21 100644
--- a/cpu-miner.c
+++ b/cpu-miner.c
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ static bool opt_background = false;
 static bool opt_quiet = false;
 static int opt_retries = -1;
 static int opt_fail_pause = 30;
-int opt_timeout = 270;
+int opt_timeout = 0;
 static int opt_scantime = 5;
 static json_t *opt_config;
 static const bool opt_time = true;
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ Options:\n\
   -r, --retries=N       number of times to retry if a network call fails\n\
                           (default: retry indefinitely)\n\
   -R, --retry-pause=N   time to pause between retries, in seconds (default: 30)\n\
-  -T, --timeout=N       network timeout, in seconds (default: 270)\n\
+  -T, --timeout=N       timeout for long polling, in seconds (default: none)\n\
   -s, --scantime=N      upper bound on time spent scanning current work when\n\
                           long polling is unavailable, in seconds (default: 5)\n\
       --no-longpoll     disable X-Long-Polling support\n\
diff --git a/minerd.1 b/minerd.1
index c62d26c..e184ef8 100644
--- a/minerd.1
+++ b/minerd.1
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ If not specified, the miner will try to detect the number of available processor
 and use that.
 .TP
 \fB\-T\fR, \fB\-\-timeout\fR=\fISECONDS\fR
-Set the timeout for long polling. Default is 270 seconds.
+Set a timeout for long polling.
 .TP
 \fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-user\fR=\fIUSERNAME\fR
 Set the username to use for connecting to the mining server.