diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index 9d9807485..d626ade86 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -399,6 +399,10 @@ The following keywords are supported in the "global" section :
    - tune.maxaccept
    - tune.maxpollevents
    - tune.maxrewrite
+   - tune.rcvbuf.client
+   - tune.rcvbuf.server
+   - tune.sndbuf.client
+   - tune.sndbuf.server
 
  * Debugging
    - debug
@@ -639,6 +643,29 @@ tune.maxrewrite <number>
   larger than that. This means you don't have to worry about it when changing
   bufsize.
 
+tune.rcvbuf.client <number>
+tune.rcvbuf.server <number>
+  Forces the kernel socket receive buffer size on the client or the server side
+  to the specified value in bytes. This value applies to all TCP/HTTP frontends
+  and backends. It should normally never be set, and the default size (0) lets
+  the kernel autotune this value depending on the amount of available memory.
+  However it can sometimes help to set it to very low values (eg: 4096) in
+  order to save kernel memory by preventing it from buffering too large amounts
+  of received data. Lower values will significantly increase CPU usage though.
+
+tune.sndbuf.client <number>
+tune.sndbuf.server <number>
+  Forces the kernel socket send buffer size on the client or the server side to
+  the specified value in bytes. This value applies to all TCP/HTTP frontends
+  and backends. It should normally never be set, and the default size (0) lets
+  the kernel autotune this value depending on the amount of available memory.
+  However it can sometimes help to set it to very low values (eg: 4096) in
+  order to save kernel memory by preventing it from buffering too large amounts
+  of received data. Lower values will significantly increase CPU usage though.
+  Another use case is to prevent write timeouts with extremely slow clients due
+  to the kernel waiting for a large part of the buffer to be read before
+  notifying haproxy again.
+
 
 3.3. Debugging
 --------------
diff --git a/include/types/global.h b/include/types/global.h
index 2a7bc4609..463bd3876 100644
--- a/include/types/global.h
+++ b/include/types/global.h
@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ struct global {
 		int recv_enough;   /* how many input bytes at once are "enough" */
 		int bufsize;       /* buffer size in bytes, defaults to BUFSIZE */
 		int maxrewrite;    /* buffer max rewrite size in bytes, defaults to MAXREWRITE */
+		int client_sndbuf; /* set client sndbuf to this value if not null */
+		int client_rcvbuf; /* set client rcvbuf to this value if not null */
+		int server_sndbuf; /* set server sndbuf to this value if not null */
+		int server_rcvbuf; /* set server rcvbuf to this value if not null */
 	} tune;
 	struct listener stats_sock; /* unix socket listener for statistics */
 	struct proxy *stats_fe;     /* the frontend holding the stats settings */
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index 39a79f2f7..9aae768ab 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -475,6 +475,58 @@ int cfg_parse_global(const char *file, int linenum, char **args, int kwm)
 		if (global.tune.maxrewrite >= global.tune.bufsize / 2)
 			global.tune.maxrewrite = global.tune.bufsize / 2;
 	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "tune.rcvbuf.client")) {
+		if (global.tune.client_rcvbuf != 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		global.tune.client_rcvbuf = atol(args[1]);
+	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "tune.rcvbuf.server")) {
+		if (global.tune.server_rcvbuf != 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		global.tune.server_rcvbuf = atol(args[1]);
+	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "tune.sndbuf.client")) {
+		if (global.tune.client_sndbuf != 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		global.tune.client_sndbuf = atol(args[1]);
+	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "tune.sndbuf.server")) {
+		if (global.tune.server_sndbuf != 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		global.tune.server_sndbuf = atol(args[1]);
+	}
 	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "uid")) {
 		if (global.uid != 0) {
 			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : user/uid already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum);
diff --git a/src/client.c b/src/client.c
index 458bb1c2c..f27424534 100644
--- a/src/client.c
+++ b/src/client.c
@@ -172,6 +172,12 @@ int event_accept(int fd) {
 		if (p->options & PR_O_TCP_NOLING)
 			setsockopt(cfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LINGER, (struct linger *) &nolinger, sizeof(struct linger));
 
+		if (global.tune.client_sndbuf)
+			setsockopt(cfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, &global.tune.client_sndbuf, sizeof(global.tune.client_sndbuf));
+
+		if (global.tune.client_rcvbuf)
+			setsockopt(cfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &global.tune.client_rcvbuf, sizeof(global.tune.client_rcvbuf));
+
 		t->process = l->handler;
 		t->context = s;
 		t->nice = l->nice;
diff --git a/src/proto_tcp.c b/src/proto_tcp.c
index b2efa0b78..23f3ac93c 100644
--- a/src/proto_tcp.c
+++ b/src/proto_tcp.c
@@ -378,6 +378,12 @@ int tcpv4_connect_server(struct stream_interface *si,
                 setsockopt(fd, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_QUICKACK, (char *) &zero, sizeof(zero));
 #endif
 
+	if (global.tune.server_sndbuf)
+                setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, &global.tune.server_sndbuf, sizeof(global.tune.server_sndbuf));
+
+	if (global.tune.server_rcvbuf)
+                setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &global.tune.server_rcvbuf, sizeof(global.tune.server_rcvbuf));
+
 	if ((connect(fd, (struct sockaddr *)srv_addr, sizeof(struct sockaddr_in)) == -1) &&
 	    (errno != EINPROGRESS) && (errno != EALREADY) && (errno != EISCONN)) {