diff --git a/netwerk/base/public/nsISocketTransport.idl b/netwerk/base/public/nsISocketTransport.idl
index 54e451262724..3cd7471c807b 100644
--- a/netwerk/base/public/nsISocketTransport.idl
+++ b/netwerk/base/public/nsISocketTransport.idl
@@ -32,6 +32,14 @@ interface nsISocketTransport : nsISupports
 	 * needed by HTTP/1.1
 	 */
 	attribute long bytesExpected;
+	attribute unsigned long reuseCount;
 
+	/**
+	 * Checks if the socket is still alive
+	 *
+	 * @param seconds	amount of time after which the socket is always deemed to be
+	 *					dead (no further checking is done in this case); seconds = 0
+	 *					will cause it not to do timeout checking at all
+	 */
 	boolean	isAlive (in unsigned long seconds);
 };
diff --git a/netwerk/base/src/nsSocketTransport.cpp b/netwerk/base/src/nsSocketTransport.cpp
index a121944d2a42..5da6be374f08 100644
--- a/netwerk/base/src/nsSocketTransport.cpp
+++ b/netwerk/base/src/nsSocketTransport.cpp
@@ -422,10 +422,16 @@ nsresult nsSocketTransport::Process(PRInt16 aSelectFlags)
             PRBool isalive = PR_FALSE;
             if (NS_SUCCEEDED (IsAlive (0, &isalive)) && !isalive)
             {
-                CloseConnection ();
+                if (mSocketFD)
+                {
+                    PR_Close (mSocketFD);
+                    mSocketFD = nsnull;
+                }
 
                 mCurrentState = eSocketState_WaitConnect;
                 mLastReuseCount = mReuseCount;
+                fireStatus (mCurrentState);
+
                 continue;
             }
         }
@@ -1294,7 +1300,7 @@ NS_IMETHODIMP
 nsSocketTransport::GetReuseConnection(PRBool *_retval)
 {
     if (_retval == NULL)
-        return NS_ERROR_FAILURE;
+        return NS_ERROR_NULL_POINTER;
 
     *_retval = !mCloseConnectionOnceDone;
     return NS_OK;
@@ -1311,6 +1317,23 @@ nsSocketTransport::SetReuseConnection(PRBool aReuse)
     return NS_OK;
 }
 
+NS_IMETHODIMP
+nsSocketTransport::GetReuseCount (PRUint32 * count)
+{
+    if (count == NULL)
+        return NS_ERROR_NULL_POINTER;
+
+    *count = mReuseCount;
+    return NS_OK;
+}
+
+NS_IMETHODIMP
+nsSocketTransport::SetReuseCount (PRUint32   count)
+{
+    mReuseCount = count;
+    return NS_OK;
+}
+
 NS_IMETHODIMP
 nsSocketTransport::GetBytesExpected (PRInt32 * bytes)
 {