diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 5fb687424a..c7eb9fefc4 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Merged from 2.2:
  * (cqlsh) add CLEAR command (CASSANDRA-10086)
  * Support string literals as Role names for compatibility (CASSANDRA-10135)
 Merged from 2.1:
+ * Change streaming_socket_timeout_in_ms default to 1 hour (CASSANDRA-8611)
  * (cqlsh) update list of CQL keywords (CASSANDRA-9232)
 
 
diff --git a/conf/cassandra.yaml b/conf/cassandra.yaml
index 58a343af65..4b53ddd44f 100644
--- a/conf/cassandra.yaml
+++ b/conf/cassandra.yaml
@@ -722,8 +722,8 @@ cross_node_timeout: false
 # When a timeout occurs during streaming, streaming is retried from the start
 # of the current file. This _can_ involve re-streaming an important amount of
 # data, so you should avoid setting the value too low.
-# Default value is 0, which never timeout streams.
-# streaming_socket_timeout_in_ms: 0
+# Default value is 3600000, which means streams timeout after an hour.
+# streaming_socket_timeout_in_ms: 3600000
 
 # phi value that must be reached for a host to be marked down.
 # most users should never need to adjust this.
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java
index 762935dc74..9d55fc8efa 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ public class Config
 
     public volatile Long truncate_request_timeout_in_ms = 60000L;
 
-    public Integer streaming_socket_timeout_in_ms = 0;
+    public Integer streaming_socket_timeout_in_ms = 3600000;
 
     public boolean cross_node_timeout = false;