diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index bae6ff12dd4..a762cd981a3 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -169,6 +169,8 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
    HBASE-703   Invalid regions listed by regionserver.jsp (Izaak Rubin via Stack)
    HBASE-674   Memcache size unreliable
    HBASE-726   Unit tests won't run because of a typo (Sebastien Rainville via Stack)
+   HBASE-727   Client caught in an infinite loop when trying to connect to cached
+               server locations (Izaak Rubin via Stack)
    
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-559   MR example job to count table rows
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HConnectionManager.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HConnectionManager.java
index 8dbb2cc8b9c..9d6a425d857 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HConnectionManager.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HConnectionManager.java
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ public class HConnectionManager implements HConstants {
     private final Class<? extends HRegionInterface> serverInterfaceClass;
     private final long pause;
     private final int numRetries;
+    private final int maxRPCAttempts;
 
     private final Integer masterLock = new Integer(0);
     private volatile boolean closed;
@@ -164,6 +165,7 @@ public class HConnectionManager implements HConstants {
 
       this.pause = conf.getLong("hbase.client.pause", 30 * 1000);
       this.numRetries = conf.getInt("hbase.client.retries.number", 5);
+      this.maxRPCAttempts = conf.getInt("hbase.client.rpc.maxattempts", 1);
       
       this.master = null;
       this.masterChecked = false;
@@ -761,7 +763,8 @@ public class HConnectionManager implements HConstants {
 
           try {
             server = (HRegionInterface)HbaseRPC.waitForProxy(serverInterfaceClass,
-                versionId, regionServer.getInetSocketAddress(), this.conf);
+                versionId, regionServer.getInetSocketAddress(), this.conf, 
+                this.maxRPCAttempts);
           } catch (RemoteException e) {
             throw RemoteExceptionHandler.decodeRemoteException(e);
           }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/HbaseRPC.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/HbaseRPC.java
index 30c2b839cea..592d9e917bb 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/HbaseRPC.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/HbaseRPC.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import java.net.ConnectException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.net.SocketTimeoutException;
 import java.io.*;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ import javax.net.SocketFactory;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.*;
 
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.RetriesExhaustedException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.HbaseObjectWritable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.*;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc.Client;
@@ -273,16 +275,28 @@ public class HbaseRPC {
     }
   }
   
+  /** 
+   * @param maxAttempts the number of times that getProxy() should be called before 
+   * giving up.  If a negative number is passed, it will retry indefinitely.
+   */
   public static VersionedProtocol waitForProxy(Class protocol,
                                                long clientVersion,
                                                InetSocketAddress addr,
-                                               Configuration conf
-                                               ) throws IOException {
-    while (true) {
+                                               Configuration conf,
+                                               int maxAttempts) throws IOException {
+    int reconnectAttempts = 0;
+	while (true) {
       try {
         return getProxy(protocol, clientVersion, addr, conf);
       } catch(ConnectException se) {  // namenode has not been started
         LOG.info("Server at " + addr + " not available yet, Zzzzz...");
+        if (maxAttempts >= 0 && ++reconnectAttempts >= maxAttempts) {
+        	LOG.info("Server at " + addr + " could not be reached after " + 
+        			reconnectAttempts + " tries, giving up.");
+        	throw new RetriesExhaustedException(addr.toString(), "unknown".getBytes(), 
+        			"unknown".getBytes(), reconnectAttempts - 1, 
+        			new ArrayList<Throwable>());
+        }
       } catch(SocketTimeoutException te) {  // namenode is busy
         LOG.info("Problem connecting to server: " + addr);
       }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
index 7722af9dad7..e0c6af5fbe2 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
@@ -700,11 +700,11 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface, Runnable {
       LOG.debug("Telling master at " +
         conf.get(MASTER_ADDRESS) + " that we are up");
     }
-    // Do initial RPC setup.
+    // Do initial RPC setup.  The final argument indicates that the RPC should retry indefinitely.
     this.hbaseMaster = (HMasterRegionInterface)HbaseRPC.waitForProxy(
       HMasterRegionInterface.class, HMasterRegionInterface.versionID,
       new HServerAddress(conf.get(MASTER_ADDRESS)).getInetSocketAddress(),
-      this.conf);
+      this.conf, -1);
     MapWritable result = null;
     long lastMsg = 0;
     while(!stopRequested.get()) {