diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/docx/index.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/docx/index.ts
index e7d9efe8..04b30a0a 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/docx/index.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/docx/index.ts
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ import { EngineScrapeResult } from "..";
 import { downloadFile } from "../utils/downloadFile";
 import mammoth from "mammoth";
 
-export async function scrapeDOCX(meta: Meta): Promise<EngineScrapeResult> {
+export async function scrapeDOCX(meta: Meta, timeToRun: number | undefined): Promise<EngineScrapeResult> {
   const { response, tempFilePath } = await downloadFile(meta.id, meta.url, {
     headers: meta.options.headers,
+    signal: meta.internalOptions.abort ?? AbortSignal.timeout(timeToRun ?? 300000),
   });
 
   return {
diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fetch/index.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fetch/index.ts
index 687c8232..40c34399 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fetch/index.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fetch/index.ts
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ export async function scrapeURLWithFetch(
           dispatcher: await makeSecureDispatcher(meta.url),
           redirect: "follow",
           headers: meta.options.headers,
-          signal: meta.internalOptions.abort,
+          signal: meta.internalOptions.abort ?? AbortSignal.timeout(timeout),
         }),
         (async () => {
           await new Promise((resolve) =>
diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/checkStatus.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/checkStatus.ts
index 4e64f74e..29938016 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/checkStatus.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/checkStatus.ts
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ export async function fireEngineCheckStatus(
             : {}),
         },
         mock,
+        abort,
       });
     },
   );
diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/delete.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/delete.ts
index d046b738..0ea28292 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/delete.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/delete.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ export async function fireEngineDelete(
   logger: Logger,
   jobId: string,
   mock: MockState | null,
+  abort?: AbortSignal,
 ) {
   await Sentry.startSpan(
     {
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ export async function fireEngineDelete(
         ignoreFailure: true,
         logger: logger.child({ method: "fireEngineDelete/robustFetch", jobId }),
         mock,
+        abort,
       });
     },
   );
diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/index.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/index.ts
index 1463104f..e69df48b 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/index.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/fire-engine/index.ts
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ async function performFireEngineScrape<
     logger.child({ method: "fireEngineScrape" }),
     request,
     mock,
+    abort,
   );
 
   const startTime = Date.now();
@@ -56,6 +57,7 @@ async function performFireEngineScrape<
   let status: FireEngineCheckStatusSuccess | undefined = undefined;
 
   while (status === undefined) {
+    abort?.throwIfAborted();
     if (errors.length >= errorLimit) {
       logger.error("Error limit hit.", { errors });
       fireEngineDelete(
@@ -236,7 +238,7 @@ export async function scrapeURLWithFireEngineChromeCDP(
     request,
     timeout,
     meta.mock,
-    meta.internalOptions.abort,
+    meta.internalOptions.abort ?? AbortSignal.timeout(timeout),
   );
 
   if (
@@ -317,7 +319,7 @@ export async function scrapeURLWithFireEnginePlaywright(
     request,
     timeout,
     meta.mock,
-    meta.internalOptions.abort,
+    meta.internalOptions.abort ?? AbortSignal.timeout(timeout),
   );
 
   if (!response.url) {
@@ -373,7 +375,7 @@ export async function scrapeURLWithFireEngineTLSClient(
     request,
     timeout,
     meta.mock,
-    meta.internalOptions.abort,
+    meta.internalOptions.abort ?? AbortSignal.timeout(timeout),
   );
 
   if (!response.url) {
diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/pdf/index.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/pdf/index.ts
index 733b06df..ca95cb32 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/pdf/index.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/pdf/index.ts
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ async function scrapePDFWithRunPodMU(
     });
   }
 
+  const timeout = timeToRun ? timeToRun - (Date.now() - preCacheCheckStartTime) : undefined;
+
   const result = await robustFetch({
     url:
       "https://api.runpod.ai/v2/" + process.env.RUNPOD_MU_POD_ID + "/runsync",
@@ -56,7 +58,7 @@ async function scrapePDFWithRunPodMU(
       input: {
         file_content: base64Content,
         filename: path.basename(tempFilePath) + ".pdf",
-        timeout: timeToRun ? timeToRun - (Date.now() - preCacheCheckStartTime) : undefined,
+        timeout,
         created_at: Date.now(),
       },
     },
@@ -69,6 +71,7 @@ async function scrapePDFWithRunPodMU(
       }),
     }),
     mock: meta.mock,
+    abort: timeout ? AbortSignal.timeout(timeout) : undefined,
   });
 
   const processorResult = {
diff --git a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/playwright/index.ts b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/playwright/index.ts
index 123a1c68..259f4938 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/playwright/index.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/scraper/scrapeURL/engines/playwright/index.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ export async function scrapeURLWithPlaywright(
         pageError: z.string().optional(),
       }),
       mock: meta.mock,
+      abort: AbortSignal.timeout(timeout),
     }),
     (async () => {
       await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(() => resolve(null), timeout));
diff --git a/apps/api/src/services/queue-worker.ts b/apps/api/src/services/queue-worker.ts
index d9da9ea1..18203f81 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/services/queue-worker.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/services/queue-worker.ts
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ import Express from "express";
 import http from "http";
 import https from "https";
 import { cacheableLookup } from "../scraper/scrapeURL/lib/cacheableLookup";
+import { robustFetch } from "../scraper/scrapeURL/lib/fetch";
 
 configDotenv();
 
@@ -1546,10 +1547,25 @@ async function processJob(job: Job & { id: string }, token: string) {
 const app = Express();
 
 app.get("/liveness", (req, res) => {
+  // stalled check
   if (isWorkerStalled) {
     res.status(500).json({ ok: false });
   } else {
-    res.status(200).json({ ok: true });
+    // networking check
+    robustFetch({
+      url: "http://firecrawl-app-service:3002",
+      method: "GET",
+      mock: null,
+      logger: _logger,
+      abort: AbortSignal.timeout(5000),
+      ignoreResponse: true,
+    })
+      .then(() => {
+        res.status(200).json({ ok: true });
+      }).catch(e => {
+        _logger.error("WORKER NETWORKING CHECK FAILED", { error: e });
+        res.status(500).json({ ok: false });
+      });
   }
 });