diff --git a/source/de/anomic/http/httpc.java b/source/de/anomic/http/httpc.java
index ebce82a31..819132365 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/http/httpc.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/http/httpc.java
@@ -210,7 +210,12 @@ public final class httpc {
         }
 
         // initialize it
-        newHttpc.init(server,port,timeout,ssl,remoteProxyHost, remoteProxyPort);
+        try {
+            newHttpc.init(server,port,timeout,ssl,remoteProxyHost, remoteProxyPort);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            try{ httpc.theHttpcPool.returnObject(newHttpc); } catch (Exception e1) {}
+            throw e;
+        }
         return newHttpc;
     }
 
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java
index 9e78ae945..3b66e38dd 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java
@@ -414,6 +414,8 @@ public final class plasmaCrawlWorker extends Thread {
                     log.logWarning("Read timeout while receiving content from '" + url.toString() + 
                                    "'. Retrying request.");
                     retryCrawling = true;
+                } else if (errorMsg.indexOf("Connection refused") >= 0) {
+                    log.logError("CRAWLER LOADER ERROR2 with URL=" + url.toString() + ": Connection refused");                    
                 }
                 
                 if (retryCrawling) {
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/server/serverCore.java b/source/de/anomic/server/serverCore.java
index e189f932b..49ceb1d05 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/server/serverCore.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/server/serverCore.java
@@ -518,7 +518,10 @@ public final class serverCore extends serverAbstractThread implements serverThre
                 // trying to gracefull stop all still running sessions ...
                 serverCore.this.log.logInfo("Signaling shutdown to " + threadCount + " remaining session threads ...");
                 for ( int currentThreadIdx = 0; currentThreadIdx < threadCount; currentThreadIdx++ )  {
-                    ((Session)threadList[currentThreadIdx]).setStopped(true);
+                    Thread currentThread = threadList[currentThreadIdx];
+                    if (currentThread.isAlive()) {
+                        ((Session)currentThread).setStopped(true);
+                    }
                 }          
 
                 // waiting a frew ms for the session objects to continue processing