diff --git a/src/frontend/stmclient.cc b/src/frontend/stmclient.cc
index f1139ca..f814477 100644
--- a/src/frontend/stmclient.cc
+++ b/src/frontend/stmclient.cc
@@ -419,6 +419,8 @@ void STMClient::main( void )
       const Network::NetworkException *exn = network->get_send_exception();
       if ( exn ) {
         overlays.get_notification_engine().set_network_exception( *exn );
+      } else {
+        overlays.get_notification_engine().clear_network_exception();
       }
     } catch ( Network::NetworkException e ) {
       if ( !network->shutdown_in_progress() ) {
diff --git a/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.cc b/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.cc
index b6de10e..982ad8c 100644
--- a/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.cc
+++ b/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.cc
@@ -153,6 +153,7 @@ NotificationEngine::NotificationEngine()
   : last_word_from_server( timestamp() ),
     last_acked_state( timestamp() ),
     message(),
+    message_is_network_exception( false ),
     message_expiration( -1 )
 {}
 
diff --git a/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.h b/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.h
index 68d42e3..2bbff53 100644
--- a/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.h
+++ b/src/frontend/terminaloverlay.h
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 
 #include "terminalframebuffer.h"
 #include "network.h"
+#include "transportsender.h"
 #include "parser.h"
 
 #include <vector>
@@ -129,6 +130,7 @@ namespace Overlay {
     uint64_t last_word_from_server;
     uint64_t last_acked_state;
     wstring message;
+    bool message_is_network_exception;
     uint64_t message_expiration;
 
   public:
@@ -150,13 +152,24 @@ namespace Overlay {
       } else {
         message_expiration = timestamp() + 1000;
       }
+      message_is_network_exception = false;
     }
 
     void set_network_exception( const NetworkException &e )
     {
       wchar_t tmp[ 128 ];
       swprintf( tmp, 128, L"%s: %s", e.function.c_str(), strerror( e.the_errno ) );
-      set_notification_string( wstring( tmp ) );
+
+      message = tmp;
+      message_is_network_exception = true;
+      message_expiration = timestamp() + Network::ACK_INTERVAL + 100;
+    }
+
+    void clear_network_exception()
+    {
+      if ( message_is_network_exception ) {
+        set_notification_string( wstring( L"" ) );
+      }
     }
 
     NotificationEngine();