diff --git includes/common.inc includes/common.inc
index 49d5921..aae39c6 100644
--- includes/common.inc
+++ includes/common.inc
@@ -873,9 +873,14 @@ function drupal_http_request($url, array $options = array()) {
 
   fwrite($fp, $request);
 
-  // Fetch response.
+  // Fetch response. Due to PHP bugs like http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=43782 
+  // and http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=46049 we can't rely on feof(), but
+  // instead must invoke stream_get_meta_data() each iteration.
+  $info = stream_get_meta_data($fp);
+  $alive = !$info['eof'] && !$info['timed_out'];
   $response = '';
-  while (!feof($fp)) {
+
+  while ($alive) {
     // Calculate how much time is left of the original timeout value.
     $timeout = $options['timeout'] - timer_read(__FUNCTION__) / 1000;
     if ($timeout <= 0) {
@@ -883,8 +888,10 @@ function drupal_http_request($url, array $options = array()) {
       $result->error = 'request timed out';
       return $result;
     }
-    stream_set_timeout($fp, floor($timeout), floor(1000000 * fmod($timeout, 1)));
-    $response .= fread($fp, 1024);
+    $chunk = fread($fp, 1024);
+    $response .= $chunk;
+    $info = stream_get_meta_data($fp);
+    $alive = !$info['eof'] && !$info['timed_out'] && $chunk;
   }
   fclose($fp);