diff --git a/appserver/plugin.jelly b/appserver/plugin.jelly
index e0d5a80f..928e4466 100644
--- a/appserver/plugin.jelly
+++ b/appserver/plugin.jelly
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<!-- 
+<!--
 /*
  * Copyright 2001-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
- * 
+ *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  * You may obtain a copy of the License at
- * 
+ *
  *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- * 
+ *
  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
@@ -284,25 +284,53 @@
 
     <!-- a flag to see if the appserver is started -->
     <j:remove var="maven.appserver.started" />
-    <ant:condition property="maven.appserver.started">
-      <ant:and>
-        <ant:socket server="${maven.appserver.host}"
-          port="${maven.appserver.test.socket}" />
-        <!-- only use the test url if defined, else just use the socket -->
-        <j:if test="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.test.url') != null}">
-          <ant:http url="${maven.appserver.test.url}" />
+    <j:remove var="failedSocket" />
+    <j:set var="canHttpConnect" value="true" /><!-- default -->
+    <j:if test="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.test.url') != null}">
+      <!-- override default true above because test url is optional -->
+      <j:set var="canHttpConnect" value="false" />
+      <!-- test url connection -->
+      <j:catch var="httpConnectException" >
+        <j:new className="java.net.URL" var="testURL" >
+          <j:arg type="java.lang.String"
+            value="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.test.url')}" />
+        </j:new>
+        <j:invoke on="${testURL}" method="openConnection" var="testConnection"/>
+        <j:invoke on="${testConnection}" method="getResponseCode" var="testResponse" />
+        <j:if test="${testResponse gt 0 and testResponse lt 400}">
+          <j:set var="canHttpConnect" value="true" />
         </j:if>
-      </ant:and>
-    </ant:condition>
+      </j:catch>
+      <j:if test="${httpConnectException.getCause().getCause().toString().indexOf('MalformedURLException') ge 0}">
+        <exception:appserverTestURLInvalid
+          propname="maven.appserver.test.url"
+          propvalue="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.test.url')}"
+          cause="${httpConnectException}"/>
+      </j:if>
+      <!-- clean up the objects to prevent leak in long sessions -->
+      <j:remove var="testURL" />
+      <j:remove var="testConnection" />
+      <j:remove var="testResponse" />
+    </j:if>
+    <!-- always test socket -->
+    <j:catch var="failedSocket">
+      <j:new className="java.net.Socket" var="dummy">
+        <j:arg type="java.lang.String"
+          value="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.host')}" />
+        <j:arg type="int"
+          value="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.test.socket')}" />
+      </j:new>
+    </j:catch>
+    <j:if test="${failedSocket.getCause() == null and canHttpConnect == 'true'}">
+      <j:set var="maven.appserver.started" value="true" />
+    </j:if>
 
-    <!-- a flag to see if the appserver is installed -->
     <j:remove var="maven.appserver.installed" />
-    <ant:condition property="maven.appserver.installed">
-      <ant:and>
-        <ant:available file="${maven.appserver.root}" type="dir" />
-        <ant:available file="${maven.appserver.dir}" type="dir" />
-      </ant:and>
-    </ant:condition>
+    <util:available file="${maven.appserver.root}" >
+      <util:available file="${maven.appserver.dir}" >
+        <j:set var="maven.appserver.installed" value="true" />
+      </util:available>
+    </util:available>
 
     <j:if test="${context.getVariable('maven.appserver.started') == 'true' and context.getVariable('maven.appserver.installed') == 'true'}">
       <j:set var="maven.appserver.installedAndStarted" value="true" />