diff --git a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java
index 6053a5693..efdf13a2c 100644
--- a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java
+++ b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java
@@ -335,7 +335,14 @@ public void get(Context context, String url, AsyncHttpResponseHandler responseHa
      * @param responseHandler the response handler instance that should handle the response.
      */
     public void get(Context context, String url, RequestParams params, AsyncHttpResponseHandler responseHandler) {
-        sendRequest(httpClient, httpContext, new HttpGet(getUrlWithQueryString(url, params)), null, responseHandler, context);
+        HttpGet httpGet;
+        try {
+            httpGet = new HttpGet(getUrlWithQueryString(url, params));
+        } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+            responseHandler.sendFailureMessage(e, e.getMessage());
+            return;
+        }
+        sendRequest(httpClient, httpContext, httpGet, null, responseHandler, context);
     }
     
     /**
diff --git a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpRequest.java b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpRequest.java
index 9f4b19dc2..3aa3b5b2e 100644
--- a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpRequest.java
+++ b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpRequest.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
 import org.apache.http.client.HttpRequestRetryHandler;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpUriRequest;
+import org.apache.http.conn.ConnectTimeoutException;
 import org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient;
 import org.apache.http.protocol.HttpContext;
 
@@ -116,6 +117,11 @@ private void makeRequestWithRetries() throws ConnectException {
                     responseHandler.sendFailureMessage(e, "socket time out");
                 }
                 return;
+            } catch (ConnectTimeoutException e) {
+                if (responseHandler != null) {
+                    responseHandler.sendFailureMessage(e, "connection time out");
+                }
+                return;
             } catch (IOException e) {
                 cause = e;
                 retry = retryHandler.retryRequest(cause, ++executionCount, context);