diff --git a/plugins/RSS/test.py b/plugins/RSS/test.py
index d14eb6316..a7e39dd03 100644
--- a/plugins/RSS/test.py
+++ b/plugins/RSS/test.py
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ def constant(content):
 url = 'http://www.advogato.org/rss/articles.xml'
 class RSSTestCase(ChannelPluginTestCase):
     plugins = ('RSS','Plugin')
+
+    timeout = 1
+
     def testRssAddBadName(self):
         self.assertError('rss add "foo bar" %s' % url)
 
@@ -340,6 +343,8 @@ class RSSTestCase(ChannelPluginTestCase):
             feedparser._open_resource = old_open
 
     if network:
+        timeout = 5  # Note this applies also to the above tests
+
         def testRssinfo(self):
             timeFastForward(1.1)
             self.assertNotError('rss info %s' % url)
diff --git a/plugins/SedRegex/test.py b/plugins/SedRegex/test.py
index 87ddea73f..0c70f8f31 100644
--- a/plugins/SedRegex/test.py
+++ b/plugins/SedRegex/test.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class SedRegexTestCase(ChannelPluginTestCase):
 
     # getMsg() stalls if no message is ever sent (i.e. if the plugin fails to respond to a request)
     # We should limit the timeout to prevent the tests from taking forever.
-    timeout = 3
+    timeout = 1
 
     def testSimpleReplace(self):
         self.feedMsg('Abcd abcdefgh')
diff --git a/src/test.py b/src/test.py
index 34765f108..011fa668c 100644
--- a/src/test.py
+++ b/src/test.py
@@ -196,8 +196,10 @@ class PluginTestCase(SupyTestCase):
     cleanConfDir = True
     cleanDataDir = True
     config = {}
+    timeout = None
     def __init__(self, methodName='runTest'):
-        self.timeout = timeout
+        if self.timeout is None:
+            self.timeout = timeout
         originalRunTest = getattr(self, methodName)
         def runTest(self):
             run = True
@@ -373,12 +375,23 @@ class PluginTestCase(SupyTestCase):
                         '%s is not the help (%s)' % (m.args[1], lastGetHelp))
         return m
 
-    def assertNoResponse(self, query, timeout=0, **kwargs):
+    def assertNoResponse(self, query, timeout=None, **kwargs):
+        if timeout is None:
+            timeout = 0
+            # timeout=0 does not wait at all for an answer after the command
+            # function finished running. This is fine for non-threaded
+            # plugins because they usually won't answer anything after that;
+            # but not for threaded plugins.
+            # TODO: also detect threaded commands
+            for cb in self.irc.callbacks:
+                if cb.threaded:
+                    timeout = self.timeout
+                    break
         m = self._feedMsg(query, timeout=timeout, **kwargs)
         self.assertFalse(m, 'Unexpected response: %r' % m)
         return m
 
-    def assertSnarfNoResponse(self, query, timeout=0, **kwargs):
+    def assertSnarfNoResponse(self, query, timeout=None, **kwargs):
         return self.assertNoResponse(query, timeout=timeout,
                                      usePrefixChar=False, **kwargs)