diff --git a/admin/settings/server.php b/admin/settings/server.php
index 807bf75f8e9..57a0548d12c 100644
--- a/admin/settings/server.php
+++ b/admin/settings/server.php
@@ -241,6 +241,8 @@ $temp->add(new admin_setting_configselect('extramemorylimit', get_string('extram
 $temp->add(new admin_setting_configtext('curlcache', get_string('curlcache', 'admin'),
                                         get_string('configcurlcache', 'admin'), 120, PARAM_INT));
 
+$temp->add(new admin_setting_configtext('curltimeoutkbitrate', get_string('curltimeoutkbitrate', 'admin'),
+                                        get_string('configcurltimeoutkbitrate_help', 'admin'), 56, PARAM_INT));
 /* //TODO: we need to fix code instead of relying on slow rcache, enable this once we have some code that is actually using it
 $temp->add(new admin_setting_special_selectsetup('cachetype', get_string('cachetype', 'admin'),
                                           get_string('configcachetype', 'admin'), '',
diff --git a/lang/en/admin.php b/lang/en/admin.php
index 62712970524..64c62b4ab18 100644
--- a/lang/en/admin.php
+++ b/lang/en/admin.php
@@ -398,6 +398,8 @@ $string['ctyperequired'] = 'The ctype PHP extension is now required by Moodle, i
 $string['curlcache'] = 'cURL cache TTL';
 $string['curlrecommended'] = 'Installing the optional cURL library is highly recommended in order to enable Moodle Networking functionality.';
 $string['curlrequired'] = 'The cURL PHP extension is now required by Moodle, in order to communicate with Moodle repositories.';
+$string['curltimeoutkbitrate'] = 'Minimum cURL timeout bitrate (Kbps)';
+$string['curltimeoutkbitrate_help'] = 'A slow enough bitrate to call timeout when downloading file contents from the internet. HTTP HEAD requests determine the file size to calculate timeout. 0 disables any HEAD request. ';
 $string['customcheck'] = 'Other checks';
 $string['custommenu'] = 'Custom menu';
 $string['custommenuitems'] = 'Custom menu items';
diff --git a/lib/filelib.php b/lib/filelib.php
index 3e86263bc12..93aeac87e02 100644
--- a/lib/filelib.php
+++ b/lib/filelib.php
@@ -918,9 +918,10 @@ function format_postdata_for_curlcall($postdata) {
  *   may not work when using proxy
  * @param bool $skipcertverify If true, the peer's SSL certificate will not be checked. Only use this when already in a trusted location.
  * @param string $tofile store the downloaded content to file instead of returning it
+ * @param bool $calctimeout false by default, true enables an extra head request to try and determine filesize and appropriately larger timeout based on $CFG->curltimeoutkbitrate
  * @return mixed false if request failed or content of the file as string if ok. true if file downloaded into $tofile successfully.
  */
-function download_file_content($url, $headers=null, $postdata=null, $fullresponse=false, $timeout=300, $connecttimeout=20, $skipcertverify=false, $tofile=NULL) {
+function download_file_content($url, $headers=null, $postdata=null, $fullresponse=false, $timeout=300, $connecttimeout=20, $skipcertverify=false, $tofile=NULL, $calctimeout=false) {
     global $CFG;
 
     // some extra security
@@ -962,7 +963,6 @@ function download_file_content($url, $headers=null, $postdata=null, $fullrespons
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers2);
     }
 
-
     if ($skipcertverify) {
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
     }
@@ -977,7 +977,7 @@ function download_file_content($url, $headers=null, $postdata=null, $fullrespons
     curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
     curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
     curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $connecttimeout);
-    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $timeout);
+
     if (!ini_get('open_basedir') and !ini_get('safe_mode')) {
         // TODO: add version test for '7.10.5'
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
@@ -1033,6 +1033,34 @@ function download_file_content($url, $headers=null, $postdata=null, $fullrespons
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, partial('download_file_content_write_handler', $received));
     }
 
+    if (!isset($CFG->curltimeoutkbitrate)) {
+        //use very slow rate of 56kbps as a timeout speed when not set
+        $bitrate = 56;
+    } else {
+        $bitrate = $CFG->curltimeoutkbitrate;
+    }
+
+    //try to calculate the proper amount for timeout from remote file size.
+    if ($calctimeout && $bitrate > 0) { // if disabled or zero, we won't do any checks nor head requests.
+        //setup header request only options
+        curl_setopt_array ($ch , array(
+            CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => false,
+            CURLOPT_NOBODY => true ));
+
+        curl_exec($ch);
+        $info = curl_getinfo($ch);
+        $err = curl_error($ch);
+
+        if ($err === '' && $info['download_content_length'] > 0) { //no curl errors
+            $timeout = max($timeout,ceil($info['download_content_length']*8/($bitrate*1024))); //adjust for large files only - take max timeout.
+        }
+        //reinstate affected curl options
+        curl_setopt_array ($ch , array(
+            CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
+            CURLOPT_NOBODY => false ));
+    }
+
+    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $timeout);
     $result = curl_exec($ch);
 
     // try to detect encoding problems
diff --git a/lib/filestorage/file_storage.php b/lib/filestorage/file_storage.php
index 79f9770fc8a..ecdd6e74b82 100644
--- a/lib/filestorage/file_storage.php
+++ b/lib/filestorage/file_storage.php
@@ -702,6 +702,7 @@ class file_storage {
         $timeout        = isset($options['timeout'])        ? $options['timeout'] : 300;
         $connecttimeout = isset($options['connecttimeout']) ? $options['connecttimeout'] : 20;
         $skipcertverify = isset($options['skipcertverify']) ? $options['skipcertverify'] : false;
+        $calctimeout    = isset($options['calctimeout']) ? $options['calctimeout'] : false;
 
         if (!isset($file_record->filename)) {
             $parts = explode('/', $url);
@@ -714,7 +715,7 @@ class file_storage {
         if ($usetempfile) {
             check_dir_exists($this->tempdir);
             $tmpfile = tempnam($this->tempdir, 'newfromurl');
-            $content = download_file_content($url, $headers, $postdata, $fullresponse, $timeout, $connecttimeout, $skipcertverify, $tmpfile);
+            $content = download_file_content($url, $headers, $postdata, $fullresponse, $timeout, $connecttimeout, $skipcertverify, $tmpfile, $calctimeout);
             if ($content === false) {
                 throw new file_exception('storedfileproblem', 'Can not fetch file form URL');
             }
@@ -728,7 +729,7 @@ class file_storage {
             }
 
         } else {
-            $content = download_file_content($url, $headers, $postdata, $fullresponse, $timeout, $connecttimeout, $skipcertverify);
+            $content = download_file_content($url, $headers, $postdata, $fullresponse, $timeout, $connecttimeout, $skipcertverify, NULL, $calctimeout);
             if ($content === false) {
                 throw new file_exception('storedfileproblem', 'Can not fetch file form URL');
             }
diff --git a/mod/scorm/locallib.php b/mod/scorm/locallib.php
index 627f17c4bad..67b89873089 100644
--- a/mod/scorm/locallib.php
+++ b/mod/scorm/locallib.php
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ function scorm_parse($scorm, $full) {
             if ($scorm->reference !== '' and (!$full or $scorm->sha1hash !== sha1($scorm->reference))) {
                 $fs->delete_area_files($context->id, 'mod_scorm', 'package');
                 $file_record = array('contextid'=>$context->id, 'component'=>'mod_scorm', 'filearea'=>'package', 'itemid'=>0, 'filepath'=>'/');
-                if ($packagefile = $fs->create_file_from_url($file_record, $scorm->reference)) {
+                if ($packagefile = $fs->create_file_from_url($file_record, $scorm->reference, array('calctimeout' => true))) {
                     $newhash = sha1($scorm->reference);
                 } else {
                     $newhash = null;