diff --git a/scripts/supybot-test b/scripts/supybot-test
index 2bec1826e..c0a500713 100644
--- a/scripts/supybot-test
+++ b/scripts/supybot-test
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 ###
 # Copyright (c) 2002-2005, Jeremiah Fincher
+# Copyright (c) 2011, James Vega
 # All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@@ -122,9 +123,10 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     parser.add_option('-c', '--clean', action='store_true', default=False,
                       dest='clean', help='Cleans the various data/conf/logs'
                       'directories before running tests.')
-    parser.add_option('-t', '--timeout', action='store', type='int',
+    parser.add_option('-t', '--timeout', action='store', type='float',
                       dest='timeout',
-                      help='Sets the timeout for tests to return responses.')
+                      help='Sets the timeout, in seconds, for tests to return '
+                      'responses.')
     parser.add_option('-v', '--verbose', action='store_true', default=False,
                       help='Sets the verbose flag, logging extra information '
                            'about each test that runs.')
diff --git a/src/test.py b/src/test.py
index f0e2826df..7a3280bbe 100644
--- a/src/test.py
+++ b/src/test.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ###
 # Copyright (c) 2002-2005, Jeremiah Fincher
+# Copyright (c) 2011, James Vega
 # All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@@ -54,6 +55,8 @@ network = True
 # This is the global list of suites that are to be run.
 suites = []
 
+timeout = 10
+
 originalCallbacksGetHelp = callbacks.getHelp
 lastGetHelp = 'x'*1000
 def cachingGetHelp(method, name=None, doc=None):
@@ -110,12 +113,12 @@ class PluginTestCase(SupyTestCase):
     """Subclass this to write a test case for a plugin.  See
     plugins/Plugin/test.py for an example.
     """
-    timeout = 10
     plugins = None
     cleanConfDir = True
     cleanDataDir = True
     config = {}
     def __init__(self, methodName='runTest'):
+        self.timeout = timeout
         originalRunTest = getattr(self, methodName)
         def runTest(self):
             run = True