diff --git a/io/io_fd.c b/io/io_fd.c
index 5256b3e..d87072f 100644
--- a/io/io_fd.c
+++ b/io/io_fd.c
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 #define _GNU_SOURCE
 #include <errno.h>
-#define extern
+#define my_extern
 #include "io_internal.h"
-#undef extern
+#undef my_extern
 #include "byte.h"
 #ifdef HAVE_SIGIO
 #include <signal.h>
diff --git a/io/io_timeouted.c b/io/io_timeouted.c
index 08732a1..1028d11 100644
--- a/io/io_timeouted.c
+++ b/io/io_timeouted.c
@@ -11,8 +11,12 @@ int64 io_timeouted() {
   e=array_get(&io_fds,sizeof(io_entry),ptr);
   if (!e) return -1;
   for (;ptr<alen; ++ptr,++e) {
-    if (e->inuse && e->timeout.sec.x && taia_less(&e->timeout,&now))
+    if (e->inuse && e->timeout.sec.x && taia_less(&e->timeout,&now)) {
+      /* we have a timeout */
+      if ((e->canread&&e->wantread) || (e->canwrite&&e->wantwrite))
+	continue;	/* don't count it if we can signal something else */
       return ptr;
+    }
   }
   ptr=-1;	/* this is for really pathological cases, where more
 		   connections come in all the time and so the timeout
diff --git a/io_internal.h b/io_internal.h
index 5343a21..53cdcc5 100644
--- a/io_internal.h
+++ b/io_internal.h
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+#ifndef my_extern
+#define my_extern extern
+#endif
+#undef my_extern
+
 #include "io.h"
 #include "array.h"
 #ifdef __MINGW32__