diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 63cfd810..78ca0b22 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 ## [6.2.0] - 2019-09-09
 
 - websocket and http server: server does not close the bound client socket in many cases
+- improve some websocket error messages
+- add a utility function with unittest to parse status line and stop using scanf which triggers warnings on Windows
 
 ## [6.1.0] - 2019-09-08
 
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.cpp
index 83b544a1..ceddbbb3 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.cpp
@@ -27,6 +27,36 @@ namespace ix
         return out;
     }
 
+    std::pair<std::string, int> Http::parseStatusLine(const std::string& line)
+    {
+        // Request-Line   = Method SP Request-URI SP HTTP-Version CRLF
+        std::string token;
+        std::stringstream tokenStream(line);
+        std::vector<std::string> tokens;
+
+        // Split by ' '
+        while (std::getline(tokenStream, token, ' '))
+        {
+            tokens.push_back(token);
+        }
+
+        std::string httpVersion;
+        if (tokens.size() >= 1)
+        {
+            httpVersion = trim(tokens[0]);
+        }
+
+        int statusCode = -1;
+        if (tokens.size() >= 2)
+        {
+            std::stringstream ss;
+            ss << trim(tokens[1]);
+            ss >> statusCode;
+        }
+
+        return std::make_pair(httpVersion, statusCode);
+    }
+
     std::tuple<std::string, std::string, std::string> Http::parseRequestLine(const std::string& line)
     {
         // Request-Line   = Method SP Request-URI SP HTTP-Version CRLF
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.h b/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.h
index 81da6edb..e3fd310a 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.h
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXHttp.h
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ namespace ix
             std::shared_ptr<Socket> socket);
         static bool sendResponse(HttpResponsePtr response, std::shared_ptr<Socket> socket);
 
+        static std::pair<std::string, int> parseStatusLine(
+            const std::string& line);
         static std::tuple<std::string, std::string, std::string> parseRequestLine(
             const std::string& line);
         static std::string trim(const std::string& str);
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp
index f699a0dc..2e03423c 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketHandshake.cpp
@@ -164,20 +164,23 @@ namespace ix
         }
 
         // Validate status
-        int status;
+        auto statusLine = Http::parseStatusLine(line);
+        std::string httpVersion = statusLine.first;
+        int status = statusLine.second;
 
         // HTTP/1.0 is too old.
-        if (sscanf(line.c_str(), "HTTP/1.0 %d", &status) == 1)
+        if (httpVersion != "HTTP/1.1")
         {
             std::stringstream ss;
-            ss << "Server version is HTTP/1.0. Rejecting connection to " << host
+            ss << "Expecting HTTP/1.1, got " << httpVersion << ". "
+               << "Rejecting connection to " << host
                << ", status: " << status
                << ", HTTP Status line: " << line;
             return WebSocketInitResult(false, status, ss.str());
         }
 
         // We want an 101 HTTP status
-        if (sscanf(line.c_str(), "HTTP/1.1 %d", &status) != 1 || status != 101)
+        if (status != 101)
         {
             std::stringstream ss;
             ss << "Got bad status connecting to " << host
@@ -295,9 +298,15 @@ namespace ix
             return sendErrorResponse(400, "Missing Sec-WebSocket-Key value");
         }
 
+        if (headers.find("upgrade") == headers.end())
+        {
+            return sendErrorResponse(400, "Missing Upgrade header");
+        }
+
         if (!insensitiveStringCompare(headers["upgrade"], "WebSocket"))
         {
-            return sendErrorResponse(400, "Invalid or missing Upgrade header");
+            return sendErrorResponse(400, "Invalid Upgrade header, "
+                                          "need WebSocket, got " + headers["upgrade"]);
         }
 
         if (headers.find("sec-websocket-version") == headers.end())
@@ -314,7 +323,7 @@ namespace ix
             if (version != 13)
             {
                 return sendErrorResponse(400, "Invalid Sec-WebSocket-Version, "
-                                              "need 13, got" + ss.str());
+                                              "need 13, got " + ss.str());
             }
         }
 
diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp
index 3fe2e74e..2a5d6707 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXWebSocketTransport.cpp
@@ -681,8 +681,12 @@ namespace ix
                         reason = WebSocketCloseConstants::kInvalidFramePayloadDataMessage;
                     }
 
+                    //
                     // Validate close codes. Autobahn 7.9.*
-                    // 1014, 1015 are debattable. The firefox MSDN has a description for them
+                    // 1014, 1015 are debattable. The firefox MSDN has a description for them.
+                    // Full list of status code and status range is defined in the dedicated
+                    // RFC section at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6455#page-45
+                    //
                     if (code < 1000 || code == 1004 || code == 1006 ||
                         (code > 1013 && code < 3000))
                     {
diff --git a/test/CMakeLists.txt b/test/CMakeLists.txt
index bdb4fcd3..205b9b4a 100644
--- a/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ set (SOURCES
   IXHttpClientTest.cpp
   IXHttpServerTest.cpp
   IXUnityBuildsTest.cpp
+  IXHttpTest.cpp
 )
 
 # Some unittest don't work on windows yet