diff --git a/approvaltests-util/src/main/java/com/spun/util/io/NetUtils.java b/approvaltests-util/src/main/java/com/spun/util/io/NetUtils.java
index c30c29927..0982d0e0a 100644
--- a/approvaltests-util/src/main/java/com/spun/util/io/NetUtils.java
+++ b/approvaltests-util/src/main/java/com/spun/util/io/NetUtils.java
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 package com.spun.util.io;
 
 import com.spun.util.ObjectUtils;
-import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
-import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.GetMethod;
 
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.net.URL;
 
 /**
@@ -14,34 +15,77 @@ public class NetUtils
 {
   public static String loadWebPage(String url, String parameters)
   {
+    HttpURLConnection connection = null;
     try
     {
-      HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
-      GetMethod method = new GetMethod(url);
-      if (parameters != null)
+      if (parameters != null && !parameters.isEmpty())
       {
-        method.setQueryString(parameters);
+        url += "?" + parameters;
       }
-      client.executeMethod(method);
-      String html = method.getResponseBodyAsString();
-      return html;
+      URL urlObj = new URL(url);
+      connection = (HttpURLConnection) urlObj.openConnection();
+      connection.setRequestMethod("GET");
+      connection.connect();
+
+      int responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();
+      if (responseCode != HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK)
+      {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Failed to load web page, response code: " + responseCode);
+      }
+
+      InputStream inputStream = connection.getInputStream();
+      BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
+      StringBuilder html = new StringBuilder();
+      String line;
+      while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null)
+      {
+        html.append(line);
+      }
+      reader.close();
+      return html.toString();
     }
     catch (Exception e)
     {
       throw ObjectUtils.throwAsError(e);
     }
+    finally
+    {
+      if (connection != null)
+      {
+        connection.disconnect();
+      }
+    }
   }
+
   public static String readWebpage(String query)
   {
+    HttpURLConnection connection = null;
     try
     {
       URL url = new URL(query);
-      InputStream inputStream = url.openStream();
+      connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+      connection.setRequestMethod("GET");
+      connection.connect();
+
+      int responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();
+      if (responseCode != HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK)
+      {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Failed to read web page, response code: " + responseCode);
+      }
+
+      InputStream inputStream = connection.getInputStream();
       return FileUtils.readStream(inputStream);
     }
     catch (Exception e)
     {
       throw ObjectUtils.throwAsError(e);
     }
+    finally
+    {
+      if (connection != null)
+      {
+        connection.disconnect();
+      }
+    }
   }
 }