diff --git a/plugins/network/ping/ping b/plugins/network/ping/ping
index 858fb6d3..3495dd77 100755
--- a/plugins/network/ping/ping
+++ b/plugins/network/ping/ping
@@ -70,7 +70,9 @@ use Munin::Plugin;
 
 my $ping = exists $ENV{ping} ? $ENV{ping} : "ping";
 my $ping6 = exists $ENV{ping6} ? $ENV{ping6} : "ping6";
-my $ping_args = exists $ENV{ping_args} ? $ENV{ping_args} : "-c 2 -w 1";
+# Since ping sends a packet every second (-i 1) by default,
+# we may need 2 total seconds (-w 2) for <1000msec replies
+my $ping_args = exists $ENV{ping_args} ? $ENV{ping_args} : "-c 2 -w 2";
 my $ping_args2 = exists $ENV{ping_args2} ? $ENV{ping_args2} : "";
 my $fork = exists $ENV{fork} ? $ENV{fork} : 0;
 my $packetloss_mode = ($0 =~ /_packetloss$/);