diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # Revision history for hookup
 
+## 0.3 -- 2019-07
+
+* Changed the hostname resolution exception constructor to be more useful
+
 ## 0.2.3 -- 2019-05
 
 * Added functions to get TLS peer certificate information
diff --git a/hookup.cabal b/hookup.cabal
--- a/hookup.cabal
+++ b/hookup.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                hookup
-version:             0.2.3
+version:             0.3
 synopsis:            Abstraction over creating network connections with SOCKS5 and TLS
 description:         This package provides an abstraction for communicating with line-oriented
                      network services while abstracting over the use of SOCKS5 and TLS (via OpenSSL)
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
   other-modules:       Hookup.OpenSSL,
                        Hookup.Socks5
   extra-libraries:     ssl
-  build-depends:       base                  >=4.9  && <4.13,
+  build-depends:       base                  >=4.11 && <4.14,
                        network               >=2.6  && <3.1,
                        bytestring            >=0.10 && <0.11,
                        attoparsec            >=0.13 && <0.14,
diff --git a/src/Hookup.hs b/src/Hookup.hs
--- a/src/Hookup.hs
+++ b/src/Hookup.hs
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@
 import           Control.Concurrent
 import           Control.Exception
 import           Control.Monad
+import           System.IO.Error (isDoesNotExistError, ioeGetErrorString)
 import           Data.ByteString (ByteString)
 import qualified Data.ByteString as B
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as B8
@@ -128,7 +129,7 @@
 -- | Type for errors that can be thrown by this package.
 data ConnectionFailure
   -- | Failure during 'getAddrInfo' resolving remote host
-  = HostnameResolutionFailure IOError
+  = HostnameResolutionFailure HostName String
   -- | Failure during 'connect' to remote host
   | ConnectionFailure [IOError]
   -- | Failure during 'recvLine'
@@ -152,8 +153,8 @@
   displayException (ConnectionFailure xs) =
     "connection attempt failed due to: " ++
       intercalate ", " (map displayException xs)
-  displayException (HostnameResolutionFailure x) =
-    "hostname resolution failed: " ++ displayException x
+  displayException (HostnameResolutionFailure h s) =
+    "hostname resolution failed (" ++ h ++ "): "  ++ s
   displayException SocksAuthenticationError =
     "SOCKS authentication method rejected"
   displayException SocksProtocolError =
@@ -262,7 +263,10 @@
      res <- try (Socket.getAddrInfo (Just hints) (Just h) (Just (show p)))
      case res of
        Right ais -> attemptConnections [] ais
-       Left  ioe -> throwIO (HostnameResolutionFailure ioe)
+       Left  ioe
+         | isDoesNotExistError ioe ->
+             throwIO (HostnameResolutionFailure h (ioeGetErrorString ioe))
+         | otherwise -> throwIO ioe -- unexpected
 
 
 -- | Try establishing a connection to the services indicated by