diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoder.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoder.java
index 6da1276633..9fdb9d81a3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoder.java
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import org.jboss.netty.buffer.ChannelBuffer;
  * a {@link ChannelBuffer}.
  */
 public class HttpRequestEncoder extends HttpMessageEncoder {
-
+    private static final char SLASH = '/';
     /**
      * Creates a new instance.
      */
@@ -37,7 +37,19 @@ public class HttpRequestEncoder extends HttpMessageEncoder {
         HttpRequest request = (HttpRequest) message;
         buf.writeBytes(request.getMethod().toString().getBytes("ASCII"));
         buf.writeByte(SP);
-        buf.writeBytes(request.getUri().getBytes("UTF-8"));
+
+        // Add / as absolute path if no is present.
+        // See http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616#section-5.1.2
+        String uri = request.getUri();
+        int start = uri.indexOf("://");
+        if (start != -1) {
+            int startIndex = start + 3;
+            if (uri.lastIndexOf(SLASH) <= startIndex) {
+                uri = uri + SLASH;
+            }
+        }
+
+        buf.writeBytes(uri.getBytes("UTF-8"));
         buf.writeByte(SP);
         buf.writeBytes(request.getProtocolVersion().toString().getBytes("ASCII"));
         buf.writeByte(CR);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoderTest.java b/src/test/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoderTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3ecb3b5153
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestEncoderTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2012 The Netty Project
+ *
+ * The Netty Project licenses this file to you 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. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.jboss.netty.handler.codec.http;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import org.jboss.netty.buffer.ChannelBuffer;
+import org.jboss.netty.buffer.ChannelBuffers;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
+/**
+ */
+public class HttpRequestEncoderTest {
+    
+    @Test
+    public void testUriWithoutPath() throws Exception {
+        HttpRequestEncoder encoder = new HttpRequestEncoder();
+        ChannelBuffer buffer = ChannelBuffers.buffer(64);
+        encoder.encodeInitialLine(buffer, new DefaultHttpRequest(HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1, HttpMethod.GET, "http://localhost"));
+        String req = buffer.toString(Charset.forName("US-ASCII"));
+        assertEquals("GET http://localhost/ HTTP/1.1\r\n", req);
+    }
+
+
+    @Test
+    public void testUriWithPath() throws Exception {
+        HttpRequestEncoder encoder = new HttpRequestEncoder();
+        ChannelBuffer buffer = ChannelBuffers.buffer(64);
+        encoder.encodeInitialLine(buffer, new DefaultHttpRequest(HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1, HttpMethod.GET, "http://localhost/"));
+        String req = buffer.toString(Charset.forName("US-ASCII"));
+        assertEquals("GET http://localhost/ HTTP/1.1\r\n", req);
+    }
+}