diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c7453df2..d233cada 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ set( IXWEBSOCKET_SOURCES
     ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketPerMessageDeflate.cpp
     ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketPerMessageDeflateCodec.cpp
     ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketPerMessageDeflateOptions.cpp
+    ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.cpp
     ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.cpp
+    ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.cpp
 )
 
 set( IXWEBSOCKET_HEADERS
@@ -51,6 +53,7 @@ set( IXWEBSOCKET_HEADERS
     ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h
     ixwebsocket/libwshandshake.hpp
     ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.h
+    ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.h
 )
 
 # Platform specific code
diff --git a/examples/http_client/http_client.cpp b/examples/http_client/http_client.cpp
index abc6b47d..2dd0cb54 100644
--- a/examples/http_client/http_client.cpp
+++ b/examples/http_client/http_client.cpp
@@ -13,7 +13,25 @@ using namespace ix;
 void run(const std::string& url)
 {
     HttpClient httpClient;
-    httpClient.get(url);
+    bool verbose = true;
+    auto out = httpClient.get(url, verbose);
+    auto errorCode = std::get<0>(out);
+    auto headers = std::get<1>(out);
+    auto payload = std::get<2>(out);
+    auto errorMsg = std::get<3>(out);
+
+    for (auto it : headers)
+    {
+        std::cout << it.first << ": " << it.second << std::endl;
+    }
+
+    std::cout << "error code: " << errorCode << std::endl;
+    if (!errorMsg.empty())
+    {
+        std::cout << "error message: " << errorMsg << std::endl;
+    }
+
+    std::cout << "payload: " << payload << std::endl;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.cpp
index f2960382..ffe1306a 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.cpp
@@ -5,8 +5,20 @@
  */
 
 #include "IXHttpClient.h"
+#include "IXUrlParser.h"
+#include "IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h"
+
+#if defined(__APPLE__) or defined(__linux__)
+# ifdef __APPLE__
+#  include <ixwebsocket/IXSocketAppleSSL.h>
+# else
+#  include <ixwebsocket/IXSocketOpenSSL.h>
+# endif
+#endif
 
 #include <iostream>
+#include <sstream>
+#include <vector>
 
 namespace ix 
 {
@@ -20,18 +32,52 @@ namespace ix
 
     }
 
-    HttpResponse HttpClient::get(const std::string& url)
+    HttpResponse HttpClient::get(const std::string& url,
+                                 bool verbose)
     {
         int code = 0;
         WebSocketHttpHeaders headers;
         std::string payload;
 
+        std::string protocol, host, path, query;
+        int port;
+
+        if (!parseUrl(url, protocol, host, path, query, port))
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Cannot parse url");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
+
+        if (protocol == "http")
+        {
+            _socket = std::make_shared<Socket>();
+        }
+        else if (protocol == "https")
+        {
+# ifdef __APPLE__
+            _socket = std::make_shared<SocketAppleSSL>();
+# else
+            _socket = std::make_shared<SocketOpenSSL>();
+# endif
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Bad protocol");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
+
         // FIXME: missing url parsing
 
-        std::string host("www.cnn.com");
-        int port = 80;
-        std::string request("GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n\r\n");
-        int expectedStatus = 200;
+        std::stringstream ss;
+        ss << "GET " << path << " HTTP/1.1\r\n";
+        ss << "Host: " << host << "\r\n";
+        ss << "User-Agent: ixwebsocket/1.0.0" << "\r\n";
+        ss << "Accept: */*" << "\r\n";
+        ss << "\r\n";
+        std::string request(ss.str());
+
         int timeoutSecs = 3;
 
         std::string errMsg;
@@ -39,40 +85,138 @@ namespace ix
         auto isCancellationRequested =
             makeCancellationRequestWithTimeout(timeoutSecs, requestInitCancellation);
 
-        bool success = _socket.connect(host, port, errMsg, isCancellationRequested);
+        bool success = _socket->connect(host, port, errMsg, isCancellationRequested);
         if (!success)
         {
-            int code = 0; // 0 ?
-            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload);
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Cannot connect to url");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
         }
 
-        std::cout << "Sending request: " << request
-                  << "to " << host << ":" << port
-                  << std::endl;
-        if (!_socket.writeBytes(request, isCancellationRequested))
+        if (verbose)
         {
-            int code = 0; // 0 ?
-            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload);
+            std::cout << "Sending request: " << request
+                      << "to " << host << ":" << port
+                      << std::endl;
         }
 
-        auto lineResult = _socket.readLine(isCancellationRequested);
+        if (!_socket->writeBytes(request, isCancellationRequested))
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Cannot send request");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
+
+        auto lineResult = _socket->readLine(isCancellationRequested);
         auto lineValid = lineResult.first;
         auto line = lineResult.second;
 
-        std::cout << "first line: " << line << std::endl;
+        if (!lineValid)
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Cannot retrieve status line");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
 
-        int status = -1;
-        sscanf(line.c_str(), "HTTP/1.1 %d", &status) == 1;
+        if (verbose)
+        {
+            std::cout << "first line: " << line << std::endl;
+        }
 
-        return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload);
-    }
+        code = -1;
+        if (sscanf(line.c_str(), "HTTP/1.1 %d", &code) != 1)
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Cannot parse response code from status line");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
 
-    HttpResponse HttpClient::post(const std::string& url)
-    {
-        int code = 0;
-        WebSocketHttpHeaders headers;
-        std::string payload;
+        auto result = parseHttpHeaders(_socket, isCancellationRequested);
+        auto headersValid = result.first;
+        headers = result.second;
 
-        return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload);
+        if (!headersValid)
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("Cannot parse http headers");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
+
+        // Parse response:
+        // http://bryce-thomas.blogspot.com/2012/01/technical-parsing-http-to-extract.html
+        if (headers.find("content-length") == headers.end())
+        {
+            code = 0; // 0 ?
+            std::string errorMsg("No content length header");
+            return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, errorMsg);
+        }
+
+        ssize_t contentLength = -1;
+        ss.str("");
+        ss << headers["content-length"];
+        ss >> contentLength;
+
+        payload.reserve(contentLength);
+
+        // very inefficient way to read bytes, but it works...
+        for (int i = 0; i < contentLength; ++i)
+        {
+            char c;
+            if (!_socket->readByte(&c, isCancellationRequested))
+            {
+                ss.str("");
+                ss << "Cannot read byte";
+                return std::make_tuple(-1, headers, payload, ss.str());
+            }
+
+            payload += c;
+        }
+
+        return std::make_tuple(code, headers, payload, "");
     }
 }
+
+#if 0
+        std::vector<uint8_t> rxbuf;
+
+        while (true) 
+        {
+            int N = (int) _rxbuf.size();
+
+            _rxbuf.resize(N + 1500);
+            ssize_t ret = _socket->recv((char*)&_rxbuf[0] + N, 1500);
+
+            if (ret < 0 && (_socket->getErrno() == EWOULDBLOCK || 
+                            _socket->getErrno() == EAGAIN)) {
+                _rxbuf.resize(N);
+                break;
+            }
+            else if (ret <= 0) 
+            {
+                _rxbuf.resize(N);
+
+                _socket->close();
+                setReadyState(CLOSED);
+                break;
+            }
+            else 
+            {
+                _rxbuf.resize(N + ret);
+            }
+        }
+        ssize_t ret = _socket->recv((char*)&rxbuf[0], contentLength);
+        payload = std::string(rxbuf.begin(), rxbuf.end());
+        std::cerr << "socket->recv: " << ret << std::endl;
+
+        if (ret != contentLength)
+        {
+            ss.str("");
+            ss << "Cannot retrieve all bytes"
+               << " want: " << contentLength
+               << ", got: " << ret;
+            std::cerr << "adscasdcadcasdc" << std::endl;
+            std::cerr << ss.str() << std::endl;
+
+            return std::make_tuple(-1, headers, payload, ss.str());
+        }
+#endif
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.h b/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.h
index f592a554..b2429f6d 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.h
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXHttpClient.h
@@ -11,13 +11,14 @@
 #include <mutex>
 #include <atomic>
 #include <tuple>
+#include <memory>
 
 #include "IXSocket.h"
 #include "IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h"
 
 namespace ix 
 {
-    using HttpResponse = std::tuple<int, WebSocketHttpHeaders, std::string>;
+    using HttpResponse = std::tuple<int, WebSocketHttpHeaders, std::string, std::string>;
 
     class HttpClient {
     public:
@@ -25,10 +26,9 @@ namespace ix
         ~HttpClient();
 
         // Static methods ?
-        HttpResponse get(const std::string& url);
-        HttpResponse post(const std::string& url);
+        HttpResponse get(const std::string& url, bool verbose);
 
     private:
-        Socket _socket;
+        std::shared_ptr<Socket> _socket;
     };
 }
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7ba6dc2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+/*
+ *  IXUrlParser.cpp
+ *  Author: Benjamin Sergeant
+ *  Copyright (c) 2019 Machine Zone, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ */
+
+#include "IXUrlParser.h"
+
+#include <regex>
+#include <iostream>
+#include <sstream>
+
+
+namespace ix 
+{
+    bool parseUrl(const std::string& url,
+                  std::string& protocol,
+                  std::string& host,
+                  std::string& path,
+                  std::string& query,
+                  int& port)
+    {
+        std::regex ex("(ws|wss|http|https)://([^/ :]+):?([^/ ]*)(/?[^ #?]*)\\x3f?([^ #]*)#?([^ ]*)");
+        std::cmatch what;
+        if (!regex_match(url.c_str(), what, ex))
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        std::string portStr;
+
+        protocol = std::string(what[1].first, what[1].second);
+        host     = std::string(what[2].first, what[2].second);
+        portStr  = std::string(what[3].first, what[3].second);
+        path     = std::string(what[4].first, what[4].second);
+        query    = std::string(what[5].first, what[5].second);
+
+        if (portStr.empty())
+        {
+            if (protocol == "ws" || protocol == "http")
+            {
+                port = 80;
+            }
+            else if (protocol == "wss" || protocol == "https")
+            {
+                port = 443;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                // Invalid protocol. Should be caught by regex check
+                // but this missing branch trigger cpplint linter.
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            std::stringstream ss;
+            ss << portStr;
+            ss >> port;
+        }
+
+        if (path.empty())
+        {
+            path = "/";
+        }
+        else if (path[0] != '/')
+        {
+            path = '/' + path;
+        }
+
+        if (!query.empty())
+        {
+            path += "?";
+            path += query;
+        }
+
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    void printUrl(const std::string& url)
+    {
+        std::string protocol, host, path, query;
+        int port {0};
+
+        if (!parseUrl(url, protocol, host, path, query, port))
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        std::cout << "[" << url << "]" << std::endl;
+        std::cout << protocol << std::endl;
+        std::cout << host << std::endl;
+        std::cout << port << std::endl;
+        std::cout << path << std::endl;
+        std::cout << query << std::endl;
+        std::cout << "-------------------------------" << std::endl;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.h b/ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e54c5201
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXUrlParser.h
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+/*
+ *  IXUrlParser.h
+ *  Author: Benjamin Sergeant
+ *  Copyright (c) 2019 Machine Zone, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <string>
+
+namespace ix 
+{
+    bool parseUrl(const std::string& url,
+                  std::string& protocol,
+                  std::string& host,
+                  std::string& path,
+                  std::string& query,
+                  int& port);
+
+    void printUrl(const std::string& url);
+}
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp
index 54105ef1..15d0a4da 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 #include "IXWebSocketHandshake.h"
 #include "IXSocketConnect.h"
+#include "IXUrlParser.h"
 
 #include "libwshandshake.hpp"
 
@@ -32,90 +33,6 @@ namespace ix
 
     }
 
-    bool WebSocketHandshake::parseUrl(const std::string& url,
-                                      std::string& protocol,
-                                      std::string& host,
-                                      std::string& path,
-                                      std::string& query,
-                                      int& port)
-    {
-        std::regex ex("(ws|wss)://([^/ :]+):?([^/ ]*)(/?[^ #?]*)\\x3f?([^ #]*)#?([^ ]*)");
-        std::cmatch what;
-        if (!regex_match(url.c_str(), what, ex))
-        {
-            return false;
-        }
-
-        std::string portStr;
-
-        protocol = std::string(what[1].first, what[1].second);
-        host     = std::string(what[2].first, what[2].second);
-        portStr  = std::string(what[3].first, what[3].second);
-        path     = std::string(what[4].first, what[4].second);
-        query    = std::string(what[5].first, what[5].second);
-
-        if (portStr.empty())
-        {
-            if (protocol == "ws")
-            {
-                port = 80;
-            }
-            else if (protocol == "wss")
-            {
-                port = 443;
-            }
-            else
-            {
-                // Invalid protocol. Should be caught by regex check
-                // but this missing branch trigger cpplint linter.
-                return false;
-            }
-        }
-        else
-        {
-            std::stringstream ss;
-            ss << portStr;
-            ss >> port;
-        }
-
-        if (path.empty())
-        {
-            path = "/";
-        }
-        else if (path[0] != '/')
-        {
-            path = '/' + path;
-        }
-
-        if (!query.empty())
-        {
-            path += "?";
-            path += query;
-        }
-
-        return true;
-    }
-
-    void WebSocketHandshake::printUrl(const std::string& url)
-    {
-        std::string protocol, host, path, query;
-        int port {0};
-
-        if (!WebSocketHandshake::parseUrl(url, protocol, host,
-                                          path, query, port))
-        {
-            return;
-        }
-
-        std::cout << "[" << url << "]" << std::endl;
-        std::cout << protocol << std::endl;
-        std::cout << host << std::endl;
-        std::cout << port << std::endl;
-        std::cout << path << std::endl;
-        std::cout << query << std::endl;
-        std::cout << "-------------------------------" << std::endl;
-    }
-
     std::string WebSocketHandshake::trim(const std::string& str)
     {
         std::string out(str);
@@ -192,61 +109,6 @@ namespace ix
         return s;
     }
 
-
-    std::pair<bool, WebSocketHttpHeaders> WebSocketHandshake::parseHttpHeaders(
-        const CancellationRequest& isCancellationRequested)
-    {
-        WebSocketHttpHeaders headers;
-
-        char line[256];
-        int i;
-
-        while (true) 
-        {
-            int colon = 0;
-
-            for (i = 0;
-                 i < 2 || (i < 255 && line[i-2] != '\r' && line[i-1] != '\n');
-                 ++i)
-            {
-                if (!_socket->readByte(line+i, isCancellationRequested))
-                {
-                    return std::make_pair(false, headers);
-                }
-
-                if (line[i] == ':' && colon == 0)
-                {
-                    colon = i;
-                }
-            }
-            if (line[0] == '\r' && line[1] == '\n')
-            {
-                break;
-            }
-
-            // line is a single header entry. split by ':', and add it to our
-            // header map. ignore lines with no colon.
-            if (colon > 0)
-            {
-                line[i] = '\0';
-                std::string lineStr(line);
-                // colon is ':', colon+1 is ' ', colon+2 is the start of the value.
-                // i is end of string (\0), i-colon is length of string minus key;
-                // subtract 1 for '\0', 1 for '\n', 1 for '\r',
-                // 1 for the ' ' after the ':', and total is -4
-                std::string name(lineStr.substr(0, colon));
-                std::string value(lineStr.substr(colon + 2, i - colon - 4));
-
-                // Make the name lower case.
-                std::transform(name.begin(), name.end(), name.begin(), ::tolower);
-
-                headers[name] = value;
-            }
-        }
-
-        return std::make_pair(true, headers);
-    }
-
     WebSocketInitResult WebSocketHandshake::sendErrorResponse(int code, const std::string& reason)
     {
         std::stringstream ss;
@@ -355,7 +217,7 @@ namespace ix
             return WebSocketInitResult(false, status, ss.str());
         }
 
-        auto result = parseHttpHeaders(isCancellationRequested);
+        auto result = parseHttpHeaders(_socket, isCancellationRequested);
         auto headersValid = result.first;
         auto headers = result.second;
 
@@ -450,7 +312,7 @@ namespace ix
         }
 
         // Retrieve and validate HTTP headers
-        auto result = parseHttpHeaders(isCancellationRequested);
+        auto result = parseHttpHeaders(_socket, isCancellationRequested);
         auto headersValid = result.first;
         auto headers = result.second;
 
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.h b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.h
index 29814fd6..3b4d2431 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.h
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.h
@@ -59,19 +59,10 @@ namespace ix
         WebSocketInitResult serverHandshake(int fd,
                                             int timeoutSecs);
 
-        static bool parseUrl(const std::string& url,
-                             std::string& protocol,
-                             std::string& host,
-                             std::string& path,
-                             std::string& query,
-                             int& port);
-
     private:
-        static void printUrl(const std::string& url);
         std::string genRandomString(const int len);
 
         // Parse HTTP headers
-        std::pair<bool, WebSocketHttpHeaders> parseHttpHeaders(const CancellationRequest& isCancellationRequested);
         WebSocketInitResult sendErrorResponse(int code, const std::string& reason);
 
         std::tuple<std::string, std::string, std::string> parseRequestLine(const std::string& line);
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dfd99f34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ *  IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h
+ *  Author: Benjamin Sergeant
+ *  Copyright (c) 2018 Machine Zone, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ */
+
+#include "IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h"
+#include "IXSocket.h"
+
+#include <string>
+#include <unordered_map>
+
+namespace ix 
+{
+    std::pair<bool, WebSocketHttpHeaders> parseHttpHeaders(
+        std::shared_ptr<Socket> socket,
+        const CancellationRequest& isCancellationRequested)
+    {
+        WebSocketHttpHeaders headers;
+
+        char line[1024];
+        int i;
+
+        while (true) 
+        {
+            int colon = 0;
+
+            for (i = 0;
+                 i < 2 || (i < 1023 && line[i-2] != '\r' && line[i-1] != '\n');
+                 ++i)
+            {
+                if (!socket->readByte(line+i, isCancellationRequested))
+                {
+                    return std::make_pair(false, headers);
+                }
+
+                if (line[i] == ':' && colon == 0)
+                {
+                    colon = i;
+                }
+            }
+            if (line[0] == '\r' && line[1] == '\n')
+            {
+                break;
+            }
+
+            // line is a single header entry. split by ':', and add it to our
+            // header map. ignore lines with no colon.
+            if (colon > 0)
+            {
+                line[i] = '\0';
+                std::string lineStr(line);
+                // colon is ':', colon+1 is ' ', colon+2 is the start of the value.
+                // i is end of string (\0), i-colon is length of string minus key;
+                // subtract 1 for '\0', 1 for '\n', 1 for '\r',
+                // 1 for the ' ' after the ':', and total is -4
+                std::string name(lineStr.substr(0, colon));
+                std::string value(lineStr.substr(colon + 2, i - colon - 4));
+
+                // Make the name lower case.
+                std::transform(name.begin(), name.end(), name.begin(), ::tolower);
+
+                headers[name] = value;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return std::make_pair(true, headers);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h
index 97570950..100ff432 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h
@@ -6,10 +6,20 @@
 
 #pragma once
 
+#include "IXCancellationRequest.h"
+
 #include <string>
 #include <unordered_map>
+#include <memory>
+#include <algorithm>
 
 namespace ix 
 {
+    class Socket;
+
     using WebSocketHttpHeaders = std::unordered_map<std::string, std::string>;
+
+    std::pair<bool, WebSocketHttpHeaders> parseHttpHeaders(
+        std::shared_ptr<Socket> socket,
+        const CancellationRequest& isCancellationRequested);
 }
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp
index bbdee50d..d5c31bb6 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 #include "IXWebSocketTransport.h"
 #include "IXWebSocketHandshake.h"
 #include "IXWebSocketHttpHeaders.h"
+#include "IXUrlParser.h"
 
 #ifdef IXWEBSOCKET_USE_TLS
 # ifdef __APPLE__
@@ -68,8 +69,7 @@ namespace ix
         std::string protocol, host, path, query;
         int port;
 
-        if (!WebSocketHandshake::parseUrl(url, protocol, host,
-                                          path, query, port))
+        if (!parseUrl(url, protocol, host, path, query, port))
         {
             return WebSocketInitResult(false, 0,
                                        std::string("Could not parse URL ") + url);