diff --git a/doc/manual/rl-next/connect-timeout-default.md b/doc/manual/rl-next/connect-timeout-default.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dd471bfa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/manual/rl-next/connect-timeout-default.md
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+synopsis: Set default of `connect-timeout` to `5`
+issues: []
+cls: [2799]
+category: Miscellany
+credits: [ma27]
+---
+
+By default, the connection timeout to substituters is now 5s instead of 300s.
+That way, unavailable substituters are detected quicker.
diff --git a/lix/libstore/file-transfer-settings/connect-timeout.md b/lix/libstore/file-transfer-settings/connect-timeout.md
index b76fc306d..98f8a16d0 100644
--- a/lix/libstore/file-transfer-settings/connect-timeout.md
+++ b/lix/libstore/file-transfer-settings/connect-timeout.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 name: connect-timeout
 internalName: connectTimeout
 type: unsigned long
-default: 0
+default: 5
 ---
 The timeout (in seconds) for establishing connections in the
 binary cache substituter. It corresponds to `curl`’s
diff --git a/lix/libstore/filetransfer.cc b/lix/libstore/filetransfer.cc
index 01d0a0580..f94691974 100644
--- a/lix/libstore/filetransfer.cc
+++ b/lix/libstore/filetransfer.cc
@@ -889,9 +889,9 @@ struct curlFileTransfer : public FileTransfer
             std::uniform_real_distribution<> dist(0.0, 0.5);
             int ms = parent.baseRetryTimeMs * std::pow(2.0f, attempt - 1 + dist(random));
             if (totalReceived) {
-                warn("%s; retrying from offset %d in %d ms", context, totalReceived, ms);
+                warn("%s; retrying from offset %d in %d ms (attempt %d/%d)", context, totalReceived, ms, attempt, tries);
             } else {
-                warn("%s; retrying in %d ms", context, ms);
+                warn("%s; retrying in %d ms (attempt %d/%d)", context, ms, attempt, tries);
             }
 
             std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(ms));