diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua
index d5dd67e..b1d8c58 100644
--- a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua
@@ -7,14 +7,29 @@ module('autoupdater.util', package.seeall)
 
 
 -- Executes a command in the background, without parsing the command through a shell (in contrast to os.execute)
-function exec(...)
+function exec(timeout, ...)
   local pid, errno, error = nixio.fork()
   if pid == 0 then
     nixio.execp(...)
     os.exit(127)
   elseif pid > 0 then
-    local wpid, status, code = nixio.waitpid(pid)
-    return wpid and status == 'exited' and code
+    if timeout then
+      local starttime = os.time()
+      while true do
+        if os.difftime(os.time(), starttime) > timeout then
+          nixio.kill(pid, nixio.const.SIGTERM)
+        end
+
+        local wpid, status, code = nixio.waitpid(pid, 'nohang')
+        if wpid then
+          return wpid and status == 'exited' and code
+        end
+        nixio.nanosleep(1)
+      end
+    else
+      local wpid, status, code = nixio.waitpid(pid)
+      return wpid and status == 'exited' and code
+    end
   else
     return pid, errno, error
   end
@@ -69,7 +84,7 @@ function run_dir(dir)
 
   for _, entry in ipairs(files) do
     if is_ok(entry) then
-      exec(dir .. '/' .. entry)
+      exec(nil, dir .. '/' .. entry)
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater
index bb54ee5..1b9112e 100755
--- a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater
@@ -129,9 +129,21 @@ local function read_manifest(mirror)
   -- Remove potential trailing slash
   mirror = mirror:gsub('/$', '')
 
+
+  local starttime = os.time()
+  local manifest_loader = io.popen(string.format("exec wget -T 120 -O- '%s/%s.manifest'", mirror, branch.name), 'r')
+
   -- Read all lines from the manifest
-  -- The upper part is saves to lines, the lower part to sigs
-  for line in io.popen(string.format("exec wget -T 120 -O- '%s/%s.manifest'", mirror, branch.name), 'r'):lines() do
+  -- The upper part is saved to lines, the lower part to sigs
+  for line in manifest_loader:lines() do
+    -- If the manifest download takes more than 5 minutes, we don't really
+    -- have a chance to download a whole image
+    if os.difftime(os.time(), starttime) > 300 then
+      io.stderr:write("Timeout while reading manifest.\n")
+      manifest_loader:close()
+      return nil
+    end
+
     if not sep then
       if line == '---' then
         sep = true
@@ -194,7 +206,8 @@ end
 
 -- Downloads the firmware image from a mirror to a given output file
 local function fetch_firmware(mirror, filename, output)
-  if autoupdater_util.exec('wget', '-T', '120', '-O', output, mirror .. '/' .. filename) ~= 0 then
+  -- Let's give the image download 30 minutes, hopefully more than enough
+  if autoupdater_util.exec(1800, 'wget', '-T', '120', '-O', output, mirror .. '/' .. filename) ~= 0 then
     io.stderr:write('Error downloading the image from ' .. mirror .. '\n')
     return false
   end