diff --git a/studio/setup.sh b/studio/setup.sh
index 8b81c215ec..172b292512 100755
--- a/studio/setup.sh
+++ b/studio/setup.sh
@@ -987,11 +987,14 @@ _setup_http_get() {
 }
 
 # Same, with a deadline, for the checks that must not hang the install.
+# wget's --timeout is per operation and it retries 20 times by default, so a
+# server that accepts the request and then stalls drags a "5 second" check out
+# to minutes; --tries=1 keeps it to the single attempt curl's --max-time gives.
 _setup_http_get_timed() {
     if command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
         curl -fsSL --max-time 5 "$1"
     elif command -v wget >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-        wget -qO- --timeout=5 "$1"
+        wget -qO- --timeout=5 --tries=1 "$1"
     else
         return 1
     fi
diff --git a/tests/sh/test_setup_http_get.sh b/tests/sh/test_setup_http_get.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ac81af836d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/sh/test_setup_http_get.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
+# Copyright 2026-present the Unsloth AI Inc. team. All rights reserved. See /studio/LICENSE.AGPL-3.0
+# studio/setup.sh fetch helpers: curl preferred, wget accepted, neither is an error.
+# install.sh takes either transport everywhere, so a wget-only box installs fine
+# and used to stall in setup.sh, where curl was the only way to fetch anything.
+set -e
+
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
+SETUP_SH="$SCRIPT_DIR/../../studio/setup.sh"
+PASS=0
+FAIL=0
+
+assert_eq() {
+    _label="$1"; _expected="$2"; _actual="$3"
+    if [ "$_actual" = "$_expected" ]; then
+        echo "  PASS: $_label"
+        PASS=$((PASS + 1))
+    else
+        echo "  FAIL: $_label (expected '$_expected', got '$_actual')"
+        FAIL=$((FAIL + 1))
+    fi
+}
+
+assert_contains() {
+    _label="$1"; _haystack="$2"; _needle="$3"
+    if echo "$_haystack" | grep -qF -- "$_needle"; then
+        echo "  PASS: $_label"
+        PASS=$((PASS + 1))
+    else
+        echo "  FAIL: $_label (expected to find '$_needle' in '$_haystack')"
+        FAIL=$((FAIL + 1))
+    fi
+}
+
+# ── Extract the two helpers from setup.sh ──
+_FN_FILE=$(mktemp)
+sed -n '/^_setup_http_get()/,/^}/p'       "$SETUP_SH" >  "$_FN_FILE"
+sed -n '/^_setup_http_get_timed()/,/^}/p' "$SETUP_SH" >> "$_FN_FILE"
+
+for _fn in _setup_http_get _setup_http_get_timed; do
+    grep -q "^$_fn()" "$_FN_FILE" || { echo "  FAIL: $_fn not found in setup.sh"; exit 1; }
+done
+
+_MOCK=$(mktemp -d)
+_LOG="$_MOCK/argv.log"
+
+_make_shim() {
+    cat > "$_MOCK/$1" <<EOF
+#!/bin/sh
+echo "$1 \$*" >> "$_LOG"
+echo "$1-body"
+EOF
+    chmod +x "$_MOCK/$1"
+}
+
+# PATH holds only the shims, so an absent shim is genuinely absent (not a stub
+# that command -v still finds).
+_run() {
+    _have="$1"; _call="$2"
+    rm -f "$_MOCK"/curl "$_MOCK"/wget "$_LOG"
+    for _t in $_have; do _make_shim "$_t"; done
+    ( PATH="$_MOCK"; export PATH; . "$_FN_FILE"; $_call "https://example.invalid/x" ) 2>/dev/null
+}
+
+_argv() { cat "$_LOG" 2>/dev/null | tr '\n' ' '; }
+
+echo "=== _setup_http_get ==="
+
+assert_eq "curl preferred when both exist" "curl-body" "$(_run 'curl wget' _setup_http_get)"
+assert_contains "curl call keeps -LsSf" "$(_argv)" "curl -LsSf"
+
+assert_eq "wget used when curl is missing" "wget-body" "$(_run 'wget' _setup_http_get)"
+assert_contains "wget call writes to stdout" "$(_argv)" "wget -qO-"
+
+_out=$(_run '' _setup_http_get || true)
+assert_eq "no transport: empty output" "" "$_out"
+_rc=0; _run '' _setup_http_get >/dev/null 2>&1 || _rc=$?
+assert_eq "no transport: non-zero exit" "1" "$_rc"
+
+echo ""
+echo "=== _setup_http_get_timed ==="
+
+assert_eq "curl preferred when both exist" "curl-body" "$(_run 'curl wget' _setup_http_get_timed)"
+assert_contains "curl bounds the whole transfer" "$(_argv)" "--max-time 5"
+
+assert_eq "wget used when curl is missing" "wget-body" "$(_run 'wget' _setup_http_get_timed)"
+assert_contains "wget sets the timeout" "$(_argv)" "--timeout=5"
+# wget's --timeout is per operation and it retries 20 times by default, so
+# without --tries=1 a stalling server turns this bounded check into minutes.
+assert_contains "wget limited to one attempt" "$(_argv)" "--tries=1"
+
+_rc=0; _run '' _setup_http_get_timed >/dev/null 2>&1 || _rc=$?
+assert_eq "no transport: non-zero exit" "1" "$_rc"
+
+rm -rf "$_MOCK" "$_FN_FILE"
+
+echo ""
+echo "Results: $PASS passed, $FAIL failed"
+[ "$FAIL" -eq 0 ] || exit 1