diff --git a/build/jam/FileRules b/build/jam/FileRules
index 261e9fcb68..1ffbfe6784 100644
--- a/build/jam/FileRules
+++ b/build/jam/FileRules
@@ -449,6 +449,12 @@ rule DownloadLocatedFile target : url : source
 
 	URL on $(target) = $(url) ;
 
+	if $(HOST_WGET_RETRY_ON_HOST_ERROR) {
+		WGET_RETRY_FLAGS on $(target) = "--retry-connrefused --retry-on-host-error" ;
+	} else {
+		WGET_RETRY_FLAGS on $(target) = "--retry-connrefused" ;
+	}
+
 	if $(source) {
 		Depends $(target) : $(source) ;
 	}
@@ -467,7 +473,7 @@ if $(HAIKU_NO_DOWNLOADS) = 1 {
 	actions DownloadLocatedFile1
 	{
 		source="$(2)"
-		wget --retry-connrefused --retry-on-host-error --timeout 30 -O "$(1)" $(URL) || exit 1
+		wget $(WGET_RETRY_FLAGS) --timeout 30 -O "$(1)" $(URL) || exit 1
 		touch "$(1)"
 	}
 }
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 675933f98c..ee26b1f9f6 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -907,6 +907,11 @@ case $PYTHON_VERSION in
 		;;
 esac
 
+# check if wget supports --retry-on-host-error
+if wget --retry-on-host-error --version > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+	HOST_WGET_RETRY_ON_HOST_ERROR=1
+fi
+
 # check if nasm can actually output ELF files
 # (the stock version in OSX can't)
 # XXX: should probably only test for x86* arch
@@ -1159,6 +1164,7 @@ HOST_OBJCOPY				?= ${HOST_GCC_OBJCOPY} ;
 HOST_EXTENDED_REGEX_SED		?= ${HOST_EXTENDED_REGEX_SED} ;
 HOST_SHA256					?= ${HOST_SHA256} ;
 HOST_PYTHON					?= ${HOST_PYTHON} ;
+HOST_WGET_RETRY_ON_HOST_ERROR			?= ${HOST_WGET_RETRY_ON_HOST_ERROR} ;
 HAIKU_NASM					?= ${HAIKU_NASM} ;
 
 HAIKU_BUILD_ATTRIBUTES_DIR	?= "${HAIKU_BUILD_ATTRIBUTES_DIR}" ;