diff --git a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/AbstractEpollChannel.java b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/AbstractEpollChannel.java
index d332986b6b..64136bb2d7 100644
--- a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/AbstractEpollChannel.java
+++ b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/AbstractEpollChannel.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import io.netty.channel.EventLoop;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
+import java.net.UnknownHostException;
 
 abstract class AbstractEpollChannel extends AbstractChannel {
     private static final ChannelMetadata DATA = new ChannelMetadata(false);
@@ -128,6 +129,12 @@ abstract class AbstractEpollChannel extends AbstractChannel {
     @Override
     protected abstract AbstractEpollUnsafe newUnsafe();
 
+    protected static void checkResolvable(InetSocketAddress addr) throws UnknownHostException {
+        if (addr.isUnresolved()) {
+            throw new UnknownHostException("Unable to resolve addr " + addr);
+        }
+    }
+
     protected abstract class AbstractEpollUnsafe extends AbstractUnsafe {
         protected boolean readPending;
 
diff --git a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollServerSocketChannel.java b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollServerSocketChannel.java
index 390ca3d0e8..b4aba6e3da 100644
--- a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollServerSocketChannel.java
+++ b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollServerSocketChannel.java
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ public final class EpollServerSocketChannel extends AbstractEpollChannel impleme
     @Override
     protected void doBind(SocketAddress localAddress) throws Exception {
         InetSocketAddress addr = (InetSocketAddress) localAddress;
+        checkResolvable(addr);
         Native.bind(fd, addr.getAddress(), addr.getPort());
         local = addr;
         Native.listen(fd, config.getBacklog());
diff --git a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollSocketChannel.java b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollSocketChannel.java
index 3b0e985001..f053ca8929 100644
--- a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollSocketChannel.java
+++ b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollSocketChannel.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.ConnectException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.net.SocketAddress;
+import java.net.UnknownHostException;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledFuture;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
@@ -528,11 +529,13 @@ public final class EpollSocketChannel extends AbstractEpollChannel implements So
          */
         private boolean doConnect(InetSocketAddress remoteAddress, InetSocketAddress localAddress) throws Exception {
             if (localAddress != null) {
+                checkResolvable(localAddress);
                 Native.bind(fd, localAddress.getAddress(), localAddress.getPort());
             }
 
             boolean success = false;
             try {
+                checkResolvable(remoteAddress);
                 boolean connected = Native.connect(fd, remoteAddress.getAddress(),
                         remoteAddress.getPort());
                 if (!connected) {