diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java
index a7036ecffc0..4cc0a1b6577 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ public class Client {
    * @param conf Configuration
    * @return the ping interval
    */
-  final static int getPingInterval(Configuration conf) {
+  final public static int getPingInterval(Configuration conf) {
     return conf.getInt(CommonConfigurationKeys.IPC_PING_INTERVAL_KEY,
         CommonConfigurationKeys.IPC_PING_INTERVAL_DEFAULT);
   }
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 93ff5aaf060..d7eeef7b0bb 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-5886. Potential null pointer deference in RpcProgramNfs3#readlink()
     (brandonli)
 
+    HDFS-4858. HDFS DataNode to NameNode RPC should timeout.
+    (Henry Wang via shv)
+
 Release 2.3.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/DatanodeProtocolClientSideTranslatorPB.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/DatanodeProtocolClientSideTranslatorPB.java
index c765315f1c6..2c6f3243c5c 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/DatanodeProtocolClientSideTranslatorPB.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/DatanodeProtocolClientSideTranslatorPB.java
@@ -102,9 +102,10 @@ public class DatanodeProtocolClientSideTranslatorPB implements
   private static DatanodeProtocolPB createNamenode(
       InetSocketAddress nameNodeAddr, Configuration conf,
       UserGroupInformation ugi) throws IOException {
-    return RPC.getProxy(DatanodeProtocolPB.class,
+    return RPC.getProtocolProxy(DatanodeProtocolPB.class,
         RPC.getProtocolVersion(DatanodeProtocolPB.class), nameNodeAddr, ugi,
-        conf, NetUtils.getSocketFactory(conf, DatanodeProtocolPB.class));
+        conf, NetUtils.getSocketFactory(conf, DatanodeProtocolPB.class),
+        org.apache.hadoop.ipc.Client.getPingInterval(conf), null).getProxy();
   }
 
   /** Create a {@link NameNode} proxy */