diff --git a/lib/http/connection.rb b/lib/http/connection.rb
index 9bdec865..938168bc 100644
--- a/lib/http/connection.rb
+++ b/lib/http/connection.rb
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ class Connection
 
     # @param [HTTP::Request] req
     # @param [HTTP::Options] options
+    # @raise [HTTP::ConnectionError] when failed to connect
     def initialize(req, options)
       @persistent           = options.persistent?
       @keep_alive_timeout   = options.keep_alive_timeout.to_f
@@ -35,6 +36,8 @@ def initialize(req, options)
       send_proxy_connect_request(req)
       start_tls(req, options)
       reset_timer
+    rescue SocketError, SystemCallError => e
+      raise ConnectionError, "failed to connect: #{e}"
     end
 
     # @see (HTTP::Response::Parser#status_code)
@@ -104,7 +107,7 @@ def read_headers!
 
       set_keep_alive
     rescue IOError, Errno::ECONNRESET, Errno::EPIPE => e
-      raise IOError, "problem making HTTP request: #{e}"
+      raise ConnectionError, "failed to read headers: #{e}"
     end
 
     # Callback for when we've reached the end of a response
diff --git a/lib/http/errors.rb b/lib/http/errors.rb
index 6fefd8ce..199fff1e 100644
--- a/lib/http/errors.rb
+++ b/lib/http/errors.rb
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ module HTTP
   # Generic error
   class Error < StandardError; end
 
+  # Generic Connection error
+  class ConnectionError < Error; end
+
   # Generic Request error
   class RequestError < Error; end
 
diff --git a/lib/http/response/status.rb b/lib/http/response/status.rb
index 6de58f06..2916e1d2 100644
--- a/lib/http/response/status.rb
+++ b/lib/http/response/status.rb
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ def #{symbol}?      # def bad_request?
       end
 
       def __setobj__(obj)
+        fail TypeError, "Expected #{obj.inspect} 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 a0931054..7e2051b2 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 TypeError
     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 5272c7ab..258a8287 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 "unifies socket errors into HTTP::ConnectionError" do
+      expect { HTTP.get "http://thishostshouldnotexists.com" }.to raise_error HTTP::ConnectionError
+      expect { HTTP.get "http://127.0.0.1:000" }.to raise_error HTTP::ConnectionError
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/support/connection_reuse_shared.rb b/spec/support/connection_reuse_shared.rb
index b0986f5c..59633688 100644
--- a/spec/support/connection_reuse_shared.rb
+++ b/spec/support/connection_reuse_shared.rb
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
           # rubocop:enable Style/RescueModifier
 
           # Should error because we tried to use a bad socket
-          expect { client.get("#{server.endpoint}/socket").body.to_s }.to raise_error(IOError)
+          expect { client.get("#{server.endpoint}/socket").body.to_s }.to raise_error HTTP::ConnectionError
 
           # Should succeed since we create a new socket
           second_socket = client.get("#{server.endpoint}/socket").body.to_s
diff --git a/spec/support/http_handling_shared.rb b/spec/support/http_handling_shared.rb
index b68b592d..3151d37c 100644
--- a/spec/support/http_handling_shared.rb
+++ b/spec/support/http_handling_shared.rb
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@
           # rubocop:enable Style/RescueModifier
 
           # Should error because we tried to use a bad socket
-          expect { client.get("#{server.endpoint}/socket").body.to_s }.to raise_error(IOError)
+          expect { client.get("#{server.endpoint}/socket").body.to_s }.to raise_error HTTP::ConnectionError
 
           # Should succeed since we create a new socket
           second_socket_id = client.get("#{server.endpoint}/socket").body.to_s