diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/networking_utils.go b/test/e2e/framework/networking_utils.go
index a8f8831d2c..01de115692 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/networking_utils.go
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/networking_utils.go
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ func (config *NetworkingTestConfig) DialFromNode(protocol, targetIP string, targ
 	if protocol == "udp" {
 		// TODO: It would be enough to pass 1s+epsilon to timeout, but unfortunately
 		// busybox timeout doesn't support non-integer values.
-		cmd = fmt.Sprintf("echo 'hostName' | nc -w 1 -u %s %d", targetIP, targetPort)
+		cmd = fmt.Sprintf("echo hostName | nc -w 1 -u %s %d", targetIP, targetPort)
 	} else {
 		ipPort := net.JoinHostPort(targetIP, strconv.Itoa(targetPort))
 		// The current versions of curl included in CentOS and RHEL distros