diff --git a/lib/nss.c b/lib/nss.c
index 6e8d242..f5c69e6 100644
--- a/lib/nss.c
+++ b/lib/nss.c
@@ -844,6 +844,36 @@ static SECStatus SelectClientCert(void *arg, PRFileDesc *sock,
   return SECSuccess;
 }
 
+/* This function is supposed to decide, which error codes should be used
+ * to conclude server is TLS intolerant.
+ *
+ * taken from xulrunner - nsNSSIOLayer.cpp
+ */
+static PRBool
+isTLSIntoleranceError(PRInt32 err)
+{
+  switch (err) {
+  case SSL_ERROR_BAD_MAC_ALERT:
+  case SSL_ERROR_BAD_MAC_READ:
+  case SSL_ERROR_HANDSHAKE_FAILURE_ALERT:
+  case SSL_ERROR_HANDSHAKE_UNEXPECTED_ALERT:
+  case SSL_ERROR_CLIENT_KEY_EXCHANGE_FAILURE:
+  case SSL_ERROR_ILLEGAL_PARAMETER_ALERT:
+  case SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP:
+  case SSL_ERROR_BAD_SERVER:
+  case SSL_ERROR_BAD_BLOCK_PADDING:
+  case SSL_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_VERSION:
+  case SSL_ERROR_PROTOCOL_VERSION_ALERT:
+  case SSL_ERROR_RX_MALFORMED_FINISHED:
+  case SSL_ERROR_BAD_HANDSHAKE_HASH_VALUE:
+  case SSL_ERROR_DECODE_ERROR_ALERT:
+  case SSL_ERROR_RX_UNKNOWN_ALERT:
+    return PR_TRUE;
+  default:
+    return PR_FALSE;
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Global SSL init
  *
@@ -1081,7 +1111,11 @@ CURLcode Curl_nss_connect(struct connectdata *conn, int sockindex)
   switch (data->set.ssl.version) {
   default:
   case CURL_SSLVERSION_DEFAULT:
-    ssl3 = tlsv1 = PR_TRUE;
+    ssl3 = PR_TRUE;
+    if (data->state.ssl_connect_retry)
+      infof(data, "TLS disabled due to previous handshake failure\n");
+    else
+      tlsv1 = PR_TRUE;
     break;
   case CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1:
     tlsv1 = PR_TRUE;
@@ -1104,6 +1138,9 @@ CURLcode Curl_nss_connect(struct connectdata *conn, int sockindex)
   if(SSL_OptionSet(model, SSL_V2_COMPATIBLE_HELLO, ssl2) != SECSuccess)
     goto error;
 
+  /* reset the flag to avoid an infinite loop */
+  data->state.ssl_connect_retry = FALSE;
+
   /* enable all ciphers from enable_ciphers_by_default */
   cipher_to_enable = enable_ciphers_by_default;
   while (SSL_NULL_WITH_NULL_NULL != *cipher_to_enable) {
@@ -1280,10 +1317,21 @@ CURLcode Curl_nss_connect(struct connectdata *conn, int sockindex)
   return CURLE_OK;
 
 error:
+  /* reset the flag to avoid an infinite loop */
+  data->state.ssl_connect_retry = FALSE;
+
   err = PR_GetError();
   infof(data, "NSS error %d\n", err);
   if(model)
     PR_Close(model);
+
+  if (ssl3 && tlsv1 && isTLSIntoleranceError(err)) {
+    /* schedule reconnect through Curl_retry_request() */
+    data->state.ssl_connect_retry = TRUE;
+    infof(data, "Error in TLS handshake, trying SSLv3...\n");
+    return CURLE_OK;
+  }
+
   return curlerr;
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/transfer.c b/lib/transfer.c
index 1f69706..c3a1976 100644
--- a/lib/transfer.c
+++ b/lib/transfer.c
@@ -2572,10 +2572,11 @@ CURLcode Curl_retry_request(struct connectdata *conn,
   if(data->set.upload && !(conn->protocol&PROT_HTTP))
     return CURLE_OK;
 
-  if((data->req.bytecount +
+  if(/* workaround for broken TLS servers */ data->state.ssl_connect_retry ||
+      ((data->req.bytecount +
       data->req.headerbytecount == 0) &&
      conn->bits.reuse &&
-     !data->set.opt_no_body) {
+     !data->set.opt_no_body)) {
     /* We got no data, we attempted to re-use a connection and yet we want a
        "body". This might happen if the connection was left alive when we were
        done using it before, but that was closed when we wanted to read from
diff --git a/lib/urldata.h b/lib/urldata.h
index b9e5c24..b181e3f 100644
--- a/lib/urldata.h
+++ b/lib/urldata.h
@@ -1331,6 +1331,9 @@ struct UrlState {
   } proto;
   /* current user of this SessionHandle instance, or NULL */
   struct connectdata *current_conn;
+
+  /* if true, force SSL connection retry (workaround for certain servers) */
+  bool ssl_connect_retry;
 };