diff --git a/salt/utils/network.py b/salt/utils/network.py
index 818c9de3d3e2..5d673fb6442e 100644
--- a/salt/utils/network.py
+++ b/salt/utils/network.py
@@ -198,9 +198,8 @@ def get_fqhostname():
     '''
     Returns the fully qualified hostname
     '''
-    l = [socket.getfqdn()]
-
-    # try socket.getaddrinfo
+    # try getaddrinfo()
+    fqdn = None
     try:
         addrinfo = socket.getaddrinfo(
             socket.gethostname(), 0, socket.AF_UNSPEC, socket.SOCK_STREAM,
@@ -210,12 +209,16 @@ def get_fqhostname():
             # info struct [family, socktype, proto, canonname, sockaddr]
             # On Windows `canonname` can be an empty string
             # This can cause the function to return `None`
-            if len(info) >= 4 and info[3]:
-                l = [info[3]]
+            if len(info) > 3 and info[3]:
+                fqdn = info[3]
+                break
     except socket.gaierror:
-        pass
-
-    return l and l[0] or None
+        pass  # NOTE: this used to log.error() but it was later disabled
+    except socket.error as err:
+        log.debug('socket.getaddrinfo() failure while finding fqdn: %s', err)
+    if fqdn is None:
+        fqdn = socket.getfqdn()
+    return fqdn
 
 
 def ip_to_host(ip):