diff --git a/src/afs/afs_error.c b/src/afs/afs_error.c
index 1943fdd367..217145fc88 100644
--- a/src/afs/afs_error.c
+++ b/src/afs/afs_error.c
@@ -287,6 +287,9 @@ afs_CheckCode(afs_int32 acode, struct vrequest *areq, int where)
 	    ENOSPC
 #endif
 	    ;
+    /* Some fileservers kill overly-idle calls with VNOSERVICE. */
+    if (acode == VNOSERVICE)
+	return ETIMEDOUT;
 
     return acode;