diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 15a1c6be1e..1eec3eaab1 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Wed Oct 25 04:59:28 2007  James Edward Gray II  <jeg2@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* lib/xmlrpc/client.rb (XMLRPC::Client#do_rpc): Explicitly start
+	  the HTTP connection to support keepalive requests. [ruby-Bugs-9353]
+
 Wed Oct 25 04:46:53 2007  James Edward Gray II  <jeg2@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* lib/xmlrpc/client.rb (XMLRPC::Client#do_rpc): Improving the error
diff --git a/lib/xmlrpc/client.rb b/lib/xmlrpc/client.rb
index fca0725ed0..726945ea39 100644
--- a/lib/xmlrpc/client.rb
+++ b/lib/xmlrpc/client.rb
@@ -530,6 +530,9 @@ module XMLRPC
         }
       else
         # reuse the HTTP object for each call => connection alive is possible
+        # we must start connection explicitely first time so that http.request
+        # does not assume that we don't want keepalive
+        @http.start if not @http.started?
         
         # post request
         resp = @http.post2(@path, request, header)