diff --git a/src/networking.c b/src/networking.c
index e8283c27..6ae4da5a 100644
--- a/src/networking.c
+++ b/src/networking.c
@@ -892,6 +892,12 @@ int processInlineBuffer(redisClient *c) {
     argv = sdssplitargs(aux,&argc);
     sdsfree(aux);
 
+    /* Newline from slaves can be used to refresh the last ACK time.
+     * This is useful for a slave to ping back while loading a big
+     * RDB file. */
+    if (querylen == 0 && c->flags & REDIS_SLAVE)
+        c->repl_ack_time = server.unixtime;
+
     /* Leave data after the first line of the query in the buffer */
     sdsrange(c->querybuf,querylen+2,-1);
 
diff --git a/src/rdb.c b/src/rdb.c
index bc0957c2..ab24c642 100644
--- a/src/rdb.c
+++ b/src/rdb.c
@@ -1063,7 +1063,18 @@ void rdbLoadProgressCallback(rio *r, const void *buf, size_t len) {
     if (server.rdb_checksum)
         rioGenericUpdateChecksum(r, buf, len);
     if (server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes &&
-        (r->processed_bytes + len)/server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes > r->processed_bytes/server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes) {
+        (r->processed_bytes + len)/server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes > r->processed_bytes/server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes)
+    {
+        if (server.masterhost && server.repl_state == REDIS_REPL_TRANSFER) {
+            /* Avoid the master to detect the slave is timing out while
+             * loading the RDB file in initial synchronization. We send
+             * a single newline character that is valid protocol but is
+             * guaranteed to either be sent entierly or not, since the byte
+             * is indivisible. */
+            if (write(server.repl_transfer_s,"\n",1) == -1) {
+                /* Pinging back in this stage is best-effort. */
+            }
+        }
         loadingProgress(r->processed_bytes);
         aeProcessEvents(server.el, AE_FILE_EVENTS|AE_DONT_WAIT);
     }