diff --git a/src/gam/__init__.py b/src/gam/__init__.py
index d1d1fa37..cfe70cbd 100755
--- a/src/gam/__init__.py
+++ b/src/gam/__init__.py
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ import google.oauth2.service_account
 import google_auth_oauthlib.flow
 import google_auth_httplib2
 import httplib2
+import urllib3.exceptions
 
 httplib2.RETRIES = 5
 
@@ -8921,11 +8922,17 @@ def getOSPlatform():
 
 # gam checkconnection
 def doCheckConnection():
-  hosts = ['api.github.com', 'raw.githubusercontent.com',
-           'accounts.google.com', 'oauth2.googleapis.com', 'www.googleapis.com']
+  hosts = ['api.github.com',
+           'raw.githubusercontent.com',
+           'accounts.google.com',
+           'oauth2.googleapis.com',
+           'www.googleapis.com']
   fix_hosts = {'calendar-json.googleapis.com': 'www.googleapis.com',
                'storage-api.googleapis.com': 'storage.googleapis.com'}
-  api_hosts = ['apps-apis.google.com', 'sites.google.com', 'versionhistory.googleapis.com', 'www.google.com']
+  api_hosts = ['apps-apis.google.com',
+               'sites.google.com',
+               'versionhistory.googleapis.com',
+               'www.google.com']
   for host in API.PROJECT_APIS:
     host = fix_hosts.get(host, host)
     if host not in api_hosts and host not in hosts:
@@ -8941,13 +8948,27 @@ def doCheckConnection():
   success_count = 0
   for host in hosts:
     try_count += 1
-    ip = socket.getaddrinfo(host, None)[0][-1][0] # works with ipv6
+    dns_err = None
+    ip = 'unknown'
+    try:
+        ip = socket.getaddrinfo(host, None)[0][-1][0] # works with ipv6
+    except socket.gaierror as err:
+        dns_err = f'{not_okay}\n   DNS failure: {err}\n'
+    except Exception as e:
+        dns_err = f'{not_okay}\n   Unknown DNS failure: {err}\n'
     check_line = f'Checking {host} ({ip}) ({try_count}/{host_count})...'
     writeStdout(f'{check_line:<100}')
     flushStdout()
+    if dns_err:
+        writeStdout(dns_err)
+        continue
     gen_firewall = 'You probably have security software or a firewall on your machine or network that is preventing GAM from making Internet connections. Check your network configuration or try running GAM on a hotspot or home network to see if the problem exists only on your organization\'s network.'
     try:
-      httpObj.request(f'https://{host}/', 'HEAD', headers=headers)
+      if host.startswith('http'):
+        url = host
+      else:
+        url = f'https://{host}:443/'
+      httpObj.request(url, 'HEAD', headers=headers)
       success_count += 1
       writeStdout(f'{okay}\n')
     except ConnectionRefusedError:
@@ -8956,12 +8977,12 @@ def doCheckConnection():
       writeStdout(f'{not_okay}\n    Connection reset by peer. {gen_firewall}\n')
     except httplib2.error.ServerNotFoundError:
       writeStdout(f'{not_okay}\n    Failed to find server. Your DNS is probably misconfigured.\n')
-    except ssl.SSLError as e:
+    except ssl.SSLError as e: 
       if e.reason == 'SSLV3_ALERT_HANDSHAKE_FAILURE':
         writeStdout(f'{not_okay}\n    GAM expects to connect with TLS 1.3 or newer and that failed. If your firewall / proxy server is not compatible with TLS 1.3 then you can tell GAM to allow TLS 1.2 by setting tls_min_version = TLSv1.2 in gam.cfg.\n')
       elif e.reason == 'CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED':
         writeStdout(f'{not_okay}\n    Certificate verification failed. If you are behind a firewall / proxy server that does TLS / SSL inspection you may need to point GAM at your certificate authority file by setting cacerts_pem = /path/to/your/certauth.pem in gam.cfg.\n')
-      elif e.strerror.startswith('TLS/SSL connection has been closed\n'):
+      elif e.strerror and e.strerror.startswith('TLS/SSL connection has been closed\n'):
         writeStdout(f'{not_okay}\n    TLS connection was closed. {gen_firewall}\n')
       else:
         writeStdout(f'{not_okay}\n    {str(e)}\n')
diff --git a/src/gam/gamlib/glverlibs.py b/src/gam/gamlib/glverlibs.py
index f2620a98..d0c19562 100644
--- a/src/gam/gamlib/glverlibs.py
+++ b/src/gam/gamlib/glverlibs.py
@@ -29,5 +29,6 @@ GAM_VER_LIBS = ['cryptography',
                 'httplib2',
                 'passlib',
                 'python-dateutil',
+                'urllib3',
                 'yubikey-manager',
                 ]