diff --git a/aqt/helper.py b/aqt/helper.py
index 916c921..2e3b74f 100644
--- a/aqt/helper.py
+++ b/aqt/helper.py
@@ -50,7 +50,9 @@ def _check_content_type(ct: str) -> bool:
 def getUrl(url: str, timeout) -> str:
     logger = getLogger("aqt.helper")
     with requests.Session() as session:
-        retries = requests.adapters.Retry(total=Settings.max_retries, backoff_factor=Settings.backoff_factor)
+        retries = requests.adapters.Retry(
+            total=Settings.max_retries_on_connection_error, backoff_factor=Settings.backoff_factor
+        )
         adapter = requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries)
         session.mount("http://", adapter)
         session.mount("https://", adapter)
@@ -81,7 +83,9 @@ def downloadBinaryFile(url: str, out: str, hash_algo: str, exp: bytes, timeout):
     logger = getLogger("aqt.helper")
     filename = Path(url).name
     with requests.Session() as session:
-        retries = requests.adapters.Retry(total=Settings.max_retries, backoff_factor=Settings.backoff_factor)
+        retries = requests.adapters.Retry(
+            total=Settings.max_retries_on_connection_error, backoff_factor=Settings.backoff_factor
+        )
         adapter = requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries)
         session.mount("http://", adapter)
         session.mount("https://", adapter)
@@ -333,8 +337,13 @@ class SettingsClass:
 
     @property
     def max_retries(self):
+        """Deprecated: please use `max_retries_on_connection_error` and `max_retries_on_checksum_error` instead!"""
         return self.config.getfloat("requests", "max_retries", fallback=5)
 
+    @property
+    def max_retries_on_connection_error(self):
+        return self.config.getfloat("requests", "max_retries_on_connection_error", fallback=self.max_retries)
+
     @property
     def max_retries_on_checksum_error(self):
         return self.config.getint("requests", "max_retries_on_checksum_error", fallback=int(self.max_retries))
diff --git a/aqt/settings.ini b/aqt/settings.ini
index 31f1da4..0faf319 100644
--- a/aqt/settings.ini
+++ b/aqt/settings.ini
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ print_stacktrace_on_error: False
 [requests]
 connection_timeout: 3.5
 response_timeout: 30
-max_retries: 5
+max_retries_on_connection_error: 5
 retry_backoff: 0.1
 max_retries_on_checksum_error: 5