diff --git a/tests/phpunit/includes/testcase.php b/tests/phpunit/includes/testcase.php
index 4b47ddca0a..dc51945ed9 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/includes/testcase.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/includes/testcase.php
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ class WP_UnitTestCase extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Allow tests to be skipped on some automated runs
+	 * Allow tests to be skipped on some automated runs.
 	 *
 	 * For test runs on Travis for something other than trunk/master 
 	 * we want to skip tests that only need to run for master.
@@ -224,6 +224,29 @@ class WP_UnitTestCase extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Allow tests to be skipped if the HTTP request times out.
+	 *
+	 * @param array|WP_Error $response HTTP response.
+	 */
+	public function skipTestOnTimeout( $response ) {
+		if ( ! is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
+			return;
+		}
+		if ( 'connect() timed out!' === $response->get_error_message() ) {
+			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
+		}
+
+		if ( false !== strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'timed out after' ) ) {
+			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
+		}
+
+		if ( 0 === strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to tcp://s.w.org:80' ) ) {
+			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
+		}
+
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Unregister existing post types and register defaults.
 	 *
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/external-http/basic.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/external-http/basic.php
index 8799746692..0da6b33511 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/external-http/basic.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/external-http/basic.php
@@ -13,9 +13,14 @@ class Tests_External_HTTP_Basic extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 		preg_match( '#Recommendations.*PHP</a> version <strong>([0-9.]*)#s', $readme, $matches );
 
 		$response = wp_remote_get( 'https://secure.php.net/supported-versions.php' );
-		if ( 200 != wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response ) ) {
-			$this->fail( 'Could not contact PHP.net to check versions.' );
+
+		$this->skipTestOnTimeout( $response );
+
+		$response_code = wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response );
+		if ( 200 !== $response_code ) {
+			$this->fail( sprintf( 'Could not contact PHP.net to check versions. Response code: %s', $response_code ) );
 		}
+
 		$php = wp_remote_retrieve_body( $response );
 
 		preg_match_all( '#<tr class="stable">\s*<td>\s*<a [^>]*>\s*([0-9.]*)#s', $php, $phpmatches );
@@ -25,9 +30,14 @@ class Tests_External_HTTP_Basic extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 		preg_match( '#Recommendations.*MySQL</a> version <strong>([0-9.]*)#s', $readme, $matches );
 
 		$response = wp_remote_get( "https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/{$matches[1]}/en/" );
-		if ( 200 != wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response ) ) {
-			$this->fail( 'Could not contact dev.MySQL.com to check versions.' );
+
+		$this->skipTestOnTimeout( $response );
+
+		$response_code = wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response );
+		if ( 200 !== $response_code ) {
+			$this->fail( sprintf( 'Could not contact dev.MySQL.com to check versions. Response code: %s', $response_code ) );
 		}
+
 		$mysql = wp_remote_retrieve_body( $response );
 
 		preg_match( '#(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}), General Availability#', $mysql, $mysqlmatches );
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php
index 337650e22b..dda4ba87fe 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php
@@ -17,27 +17,6 @@ abstract class WP_HTTP_UnitTestCase extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 
 	protected $http_request_args;
 
-	/**
-	 * Mark test as skipped if the HTTP request times out.
-	 */
-	function skipTestOnTimeout( $response ) {
-		if( ! is_wp_error( $response ) ){
-			return;
-		}
-		if ( 'connect() timed out!' === $response->get_error_message() ){
-			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
-		}
-
-		if ( false !== strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'timed out after' ) ) {
-			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
-		}
-
-		if ( 0 === strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to tcp://s.w.org:80' ) ) {
-			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
-		}
-
-	}
-
 	function setUp() {
 
 		if ( is_callable( array('WP_Http', '_getTransport') ) ) {
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/http/functions.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/http/functions.php
index d9c764d9c1..a3f45428db 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/http/functions.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/http/functions.php
@@ -6,27 +6,6 @@
  */
 class Tests_HTTP_Functions extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 
-	/**
-	 * Mark test as skipped if the HTTP request times out.
-	 */
-	function skipTestOnTimeout( $response ) {
-		if ( ! is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
-			return;
-		}
-		if ( 'connect() timed out!' === $response->get_error_message() ) {
-			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
-		}
-
-		if ( false !== strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'timed out after' ) ) {
-			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
-		}
-
-		if ( 0 === strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to tcp://s.w.org:80' ) ) {
-			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
-		}
-
-	}
-
 	public function setUp() {
 		if ( ! extension_loaded( 'openssl' ) ) {
 			$this->markTestSkipped( 'Tests_HTTP_Functions requires openssl.' );