diff --git a/Lib/test/test_urllib2net.py b/Lib/test/test_urllib2net.py
index 5ffba87fdfc..1375cdada00 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib2net.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib2net.py
@@ -186,6 +186,14 @@ class OtherNetworkTests(unittest.TestCase):
             opener.open(request)
             self.assertEqual(request.get_header('User-agent'),'Test-Agent')
 
+    def test_sites_no_connection_close(self):
+        # Some sites do not send Connection: close header.
+        # Verify that those work properly. (#issue12576)
+
+        req = urllib2.urlopen('http://www.imdb.com')
+        res = req.read()
+        self.assertTrue(res)
+
     def _test_urls(self, urls, handlers, retry=True):
         import time
         import logging
diff --git a/Lib/urllib2.py b/Lib/urllib2.py
index 2bce745e637..a0065b5b84d 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib2.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib2.py
@@ -1166,14 +1166,14 @@ class AbstractHTTPHandler(BaseHandler):
 
         try:
             h.request(req.get_method(), req.get_selector(), req.data, headers)
+        except socket.error, err: # XXX what error?
+            h.close()
+            raise URLError(err)
+        else:
             try:
                 r = h.getresponse(buffering=True)
-            except TypeError: #buffering kw not supported
+            except TypeError: # buffering kw not supported
                 r = h.getresponse()
-        except socket.error, err: # XXX what error?
-            raise URLError(err)
-        finally:
-            h.close()
 
         # Pick apart the HTTPResponse object to get the addinfourl
         # object initialized properly.