diff --git a/lib/http/connection.rb b/lib/http/connection.rb
index 7daeed3d..42ff5c24 100644
--- a/lib/http/connection.rb
+++ b/lib/http/connection.rb
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ def initialize(req, options)
       send_proxy_connect_request(req)
       start_tls(req, options)
       reset_timer
+
+    rescue SocketError, SystemCallError => ex
+      raise HTTP::Error.new(ex)
     end
 
     # @see (HTTP::Response::Parser#status_code)
diff --git a/lib/http/errors.rb b/lib/http/errors.rb
index 6fefd8ce..b6130da2 100644
--- a/lib/http/errors.rb
+++ b/lib/http/errors.rb
@@ -16,4 +16,7 @@ class TimeoutError < Error; end
 
   # Header name is invalid
   class InvalidHeaderNameError < Error; end
+
+  # Something unexpected happened, probably a bug
+  class UnexpectedError < Error;end
 end
diff --git a/lib/http/response/status.rb b/lib/http/response/status.rb
index 85d605ca..80150c6f 100644
--- a/lib/http/response/status.rb
+++ b/lib/http/response/status.rb
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ def #{symbol}?      # def bad_request?
       end
 
       def __setobj__(obj)
+        raise HTTP::UnexpectedError.new('expected object to respond_to #to_i') unless obj.respond_to?(:to_i)
         @code = obj.to_i
       end
 
diff --git a/spec/lib/http/request/writer_spec.rb b/spec/lib/http/request/writer_spec.rb
index 66c766ed..a90de13b 100644
--- a/spec/lib/http/request/writer_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/http/request/writer_spec.rb
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
       let(:body) { 123 }
 
       it "raises an error" do
-        expect { writer }.to raise_error
+        expect { writer }.to raise_error(HTTP::RequestError)
       end
     end
   end
@@ -59,12 +59,12 @@
 
       context "when Transfer-Encoding not set" do
         let(:headers) { HTTP::Headers.new }
-        specify { expect { writer.stream }.to raise_error }
+        specify { expect { writer.stream }.to raise_error(HTTP::RequestError) }
       end
 
       context "when Transfer-Encoding is not chunked" do
         let(:headers) { HTTP::Headers.coerce "Transfer-Encoding" => "gzip" }
-        specify { expect { writer.stream }.to raise_error }
+        specify { expect { writer.stream }.to raise_error(HTTP::RequestError) }
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/spec/lib/http/response/status_spec.rb b/spec/lib/http/response/status_spec.rb
index d1314a58..03969415 100644
--- a/spec/lib/http/response/status_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/http/response/status_spec.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 RSpec.describe HTTP::Response::Status do
   describe ".new" do
     it "fails if given value does not respond to #to_i" do
-      expect { described_class.new double }.to raise_error
+      expect { described_class.new double }.to raise_error(HTTP::UnexpectedError)
     end
 
     it "accepts any object that responds to #to_i" do
diff --git a/spec/lib/http_spec.rb b/spec/lib/http_spec.rb
index 3224d74a..cc52ca1f 100644
--- a/spec/lib/http_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/http_spec.rb
@@ -337,5 +337,10 @@
       client = HTTP.headers("Cookie" => "foo=bar").cookies(:baz => :moo)
       expect(client.get(endpoint).to_s).to eq "foo: bar\nbaz: moo"
     end
+
+    it "throws correct error" do
+      expect { HTTP.get('http://thishostshouldnotexists.com') }.to raise_error(HTTP::Error)
+      expect { HTTP.get('http://127.0.0.1:000') }.to raise_error(HTTP::Error)
+    end
   end
 end