diff --git a/client.js b/client.js
index cba85d5..a60916a 100755
--- a/client.js
+++ b/client.js
@@ -165,6 +165,12 @@ S101Socket.prototype.connect = function (timeout = 2) {
     self.emit('connecting');
 
     self.codec = new S101Codec();
+
+    const connectTimeoutListener = () => {
+        self.socket.destroy();
+        self.emit("error", new Error(`Could not connect to ${self.address}:${self.port} after a timeout of ${timeout} seconds`));
+    };
+
     self.socket = net.createConnection({
             port: self.port,
             host: self.address,
@@ -173,11 +179,14 @@ S101Socket.prototype.connect = function (timeout = 2) {
         () => {
             winston.debug('socket connected');
 
+            // Disable connect timeout to hand-over to keepalive mechanism
+            self.socket.removeListener("timeout", connectTimeoutListener);
+            self.socket.setTimeout(0);
+
             self.keepaliveIntervalTimer = setInterval(() => {
                 try {
                     self.sendKeepaliveRequest();
-                }
-                catch(e) {
+                } catch (e) {
                     self.emit("error", e);
                 }
             }, 1000 * self.keepaliveInterval);
@@ -201,22 +210,22 @@ S101Socket.prototype.connect = function (timeout = 2) {
             });
 
             self.emit('connected');
-        }
-    ).on('error', (e) => {
-        self.emit("error", e);
-    }).on("timeout", () => {
-        self.socket.destroy();
-        self.emit("error", new Error(`Could not connect to ${self.address}:${self.port} after a timeout of ${timeout} seconds`));
-    }).on('data', (data) => {
-        if (self.isConnected()) {
-            self.codec.dataIn(data);
-        }
-    }).on('close', () => {
-        clearInterval(self.keepaliveIntervalTimer);
-        self.emit('disconnected');
-        self.status = "disconnected";
-        self.socket = null;
-    });
+        })
+        .on('error', (e) => {
+            self.emit("error", e);
+        })
+        .once("timeout", connectTimeoutListener)
+        .on('data', (data) => {
+            if (self.isConnected()) {
+                self.codec.dataIn(data);
+            }
+        })
+        .on('close', () => {
+            clearInterval(self.keepaliveIntervalTimer);
+            self.emit('disconnected');
+            self.status = "disconnected";
+            self.socket = null;
+        });
 }
 
 S101Socket.prototype.isConnected = function () {
diff --git a/test/DeviceTree.test.js b/test/DeviceTree.test.js
index c0a7c73..0c82675 100644
--- a/test/DeviceTree.test.js
+++ b/test/DeviceTree.test.js
@@ -41,6 +41,22 @@ describe("DeviceTree", () => {
                         .then(() => tree.disconnect())
                 })
         });
+
+        it("should not disconnect after 5 seconds of inactivity", () => {
+            return Promise.resolve()
+                .then(() => {
+                    let tree = new DeviceTree(LOCALHOST, PORT);
+
+                    tree.on("error", error => {
+                        throw error;
+                    });
+
+                    return Promise.resolve()
+                        .then(() => tree.connect())
+                        .then(() => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 5000)))
+                        .then(() => tree.disconnect())
+                })
+        }, 7000);
     });
 
     it("timeout should be taken into account when connecting to unknown host", () => {