satelllite-sync is failing with "ERROR: there was a problem synchronizing the information. Error message: Timeout Exception"

Issue

• satellite-sync is timing out and failing:

# satellite-sync --email
21:25:40 Red Hat Network Satellite - live synchronization
21:25:40    url: https://satellite.rhn.redhat.com
21:25:40    debug/output level: 1
21:27:40 
21:27:40 
ERROR: there was a problem synchronizing the information.
       Error message: Timeout Exception

• Running it with --no-ssl is also failing with a timeout exception:

# satellite-sync --email --no-ssl
...
Downloading rpm packages
10:46:12    Fetching any missing RPMs: rh-i386-desktop-4 (NONE MISSING)
10:46:12    Fetching any missing RPMs: rh-i386-desktop-4-extras (NONE MISSING)
10:46:12    Fetching any missing RPMs: rhel-i386-as-4 (NONE MISSING)
10:46:12    Fetching any missing RPMs: rhel-i386-as-4-extras (NONE MISSING)
10:46:12    Fetching any missing RPMs: rhel-i386-as-4-fastrack (NONE MISSING)
10:46:12    Fetching any missing RPMs: rhel-i386-client-5 (26)
10:46:13    Total size: 325 MiB
Exception in thread Thread-1:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/threading.py", line 442, in __bootstrap
    self.run()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 2131, in run
    package_id, nvrea, self.sources)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 2072, in _get_package_stream
    stream = rpmServer.getPackageStream(channel, nvrea)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/xmlWireSource.py", line 480, in getPackageStream
    return self._rpc_call("getPackage", (channel, package_name))
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/xmlWireSource.py", line 447, in _rpc_call
    ret = apply(getattr(get_server_obj, function_name), params)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 678, in __call__
    result = self._send(self._name, args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 383, in _request
    self._handler, request, verbose=self._verbose)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 171, in request
    headers, fd = req.send_http(host, handler)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 704, in send_http
    headers=self.headers)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 810, in request
    self._send_request(method, url, body, headers)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 833, in _send_request
    self.endheaders()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 804, in endheaders
    self._send_output()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 685, in _send_output
    self.send(msg)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 664, in send
    self.sock.sendall(str)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/SSL.py", line 224, in write
    self._poll(select.POLLIN, 'write')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/SSL.py", line 204, in _poll
    raise TimeoutException, "Connection timed out on %s" % caller_name
TimeoutException: Timeout Exception