diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index bd3514967b..76d4981c40 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 1.0.7
+ * retry failed stream on IOException (CASSANDRA-3686)
  * allow configuring bloom_filter_fp_chance (CASSANDRA-3497)
  * attempt hint delivery every ten minutes, or when failure detector
    notifies us that a node is back up, whichever comes first.  hint
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/streaming/IncomingStreamReader.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/streaming/IncomingStreamReader.java
index 8c89873e94..f70f5ff928 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/streaming/IncomingStreamReader.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/streaming/IncomingStreamReader.java
@@ -158,7 +158,10 @@ public class IncomingStreamReader
         catch (Exception e)
         {
             writer.abort();
-            throw FBUtilities.unchecked(e);
+            if (e instanceof IOException)
+                throw (IOException) e;
+            else
+                throw FBUtilities.unchecked(e);
         }
     }