diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index e25b6d98..ba210e58 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
         repmgrd: fix memory leaks in witness code (AndrzejNowicki, Martín)
         repmgrd: handle failover situation with only two nodes in the primary
           location, and at least one node in another location; GitHub #407 (Ian)
+        repmgrd: set "connect_timeout=2" when pinging a server (Ian)
 
 4.0.4   2018-03-09
         repmgr: add "standby clone --recovery-conf-only" option; GitHub #382 (Ian)
diff --git a/dbutils.c b/dbutils.c
index f7cf749b..6b564959 100644
--- a/dbutils.c
+++ b/dbutils.c
@@ -3873,6 +3873,28 @@ is_server_available(const char *conninfo)
 }
 
 
+bool
+is_server_available_params(t_conninfo_param_list *param_list)
+{
+	PGPing		status = PQpingParams((const char **) param_list->keywords,
+									  (const char **) param_list->values,
+									  false);
+
+	/* deparsing the param_list adds overhead, so only do it if needed  */
+	if (log_level == LOG_DEBUG)
+	{
+		char *conninfo_str = param_list_to_string(param_list);
+		log_verbose(LOG_DEBUG, "ping status for %s is %i", conninfo_str, (int)status);
+		pfree(conninfo_str);
+	}
+
+	if (status == PQPING_OK)
+		return true;
+
+	return false;
+}
+
+
 /* ==================== */
 /* monitoring functions */
 /* ==================== */
diff --git a/dbutils.h b/dbutils.h
index a79aee7b..2055637c 100644
--- a/dbutils.h
+++ b/dbutils.h
@@ -466,6 +466,7 @@ int			wait_connection_availability(PGconn *conn, long long timeout);
 
 /* node availability functions */
 bool		is_server_available(const char *conninfo);
+bool		is_server_available_params(t_conninfo_param_list *param_list);
 
 /* monitoring functions  */
 void
diff --git a/repmgrd.c b/repmgrd.c
index e650f6c2..81f18489 100644
--- a/repmgrd.c
+++ b/repmgrd.c
@@ -705,17 +705,29 @@ PGconn *
 try_reconnect(t_node_info *node_info)
 {
 	PGconn	   *conn;
+	t_conninfo_param_list conninfo_params = T_CONNINFO_PARAM_LIST_INITIALIZER;
 
 	int			i;
 
 	int			max_attempts = config_file_options.reconnect_attempts;
 
+	initialize_conninfo_params(&conninfo_params, false);
+
+
+	/* we assume by now the conninfo string is parseable */
+	(void) parse_conninfo_string(node_info->conninfo, &conninfo_params, NULL, false);
+
+	/* set some default values if not explicitly provided */
+	param_set_ine(&conninfo_params, "connect_timeout", "2");
+	param_set_ine(&conninfo_params, "fallback_application_name", "repmgr");
+
 	for (i = 0; i < max_attempts; i++)
 	{
 		log_info(_("checking state of node %i, %i of %i attempts"),
 				 node_info->node_id, i + 1, max_attempts);
-		if (is_server_available(node_info->conninfo) == true)
+		if (is_server_available_params(&conninfo_params) == true)
 		{
+
 			log_notice(_("node has recovered, reconnecting"));
 
 			/*
@@ -723,9 +735,13 @@ try_reconnect(t_node_info *node_info)
 			 * connection denied due to connection exhaustion - fall back to
 			 * degraded monitoring? - make that configurable
 			 */
-			conn = establish_db_connection(node_info->conninfo, false);
+
+			conn = establish_db_connection_by_params(&conninfo_params, false);
+
 			if (PQstatus(conn) == CONNECTION_OK)
 			{
+				free_conninfo_params(&conninfo_params);
+
 				node_info->node_status = NODE_STATUS_UP;
 				return conn;
 			}
@@ -742,13 +758,14 @@ try_reconnect(t_node_info *node_info)
 		}
 	}
 
-
 	log_warning(_("unable to reconnect to node %i after %i attempts"),
 				node_info->node_id,
 				max_attempts);
 
 	node_info->node_status = NODE_STATUS_DOWN;
 
+	free_conninfo_params(&conninfo_params);
+
 	return NULL;
 }