diff --git a/plugins/corerouter/corerouter.c b/plugins/corerouter/corerouter.c
index a59d5e7c..ef4ec875 100644
--- a/plugins/corerouter/corerouter.c
+++ b/plugins/corerouter/corerouter.c
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ struct corerouter_peer *uwsgi_cr_peer_add(struct corerouter_session *cs) {
 		cs->peers = peers;
 	}
 
-	cs->refcnt++;
-
 	return peers;
 }
 
@@ -279,8 +277,6 @@ void corerouter_manage_subscription(char *key, uint16_t keylen, char *val, uint1
 	}
 }
 
-static struct uwsgi_rb_timer *corerouter_reset_timeout(struct uwsgi_corerouter *, struct corerouter_peer *);
-
 void corerouter_close_peer(struct uwsgi_corerouter *ucr, struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
 	struct corerouter_session *cs = peer->session;
 
@@ -380,9 +376,7 @@ end:
 		corerouter_close_session(ucr, cs);
 	}
 	else {
-		if (cs->refcnt > 0)
-			cs->refcnt--;
-		if (cs->refcnt == 0) {
+		if (cs->can_keepalive == 0) {
 			corerouter_close_session(ucr, cs);
 		}
 	}
@@ -411,7 +405,7 @@ void corerouter_close_session(struct uwsgi_corerouter *ucr, struct corerouter_se
 	free(cr_session);
 }
 
-static struct uwsgi_rb_timer *corerouter_reset_timeout(struct uwsgi_corerouter *ucr, struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
+struct uwsgi_rb_timer *corerouter_reset_timeout(struct uwsgi_corerouter *ucr, struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
 	cr_del_timeout(ucr, peer);
 	return cr_add_timeout(ucr, peer);
 }
@@ -815,6 +809,8 @@ void uwsgi_corerouter_loop(int id, void *data) {
 				}
 				else if (ret < 0) {
 					if (errno == EINPROGRESS) continue;
+					// remove keepalive on error
+					peer->session->can_keepalive = 0;
 					corerouter_close_peer(ucr, peer);
 					continue;
 				}
diff --git a/plugins/corerouter/cr.h b/plugins/corerouter/cr.h
index e130a6a8..80a93d1d 100644
--- a/plugins/corerouter/cr.h
+++ b/plugins/corerouter/cr.h
@@ -270,13 +270,12 @@ struct corerouter_session {
 	void (*close)(struct corerouter_session *);
 	int (*retry)(struct corerouter_peer *);
 
+	int can_keepalive;
+
 	// this is the peer of the client
 	struct corerouter_peer *main_peer;
 	// this is the linked list of backends
 	struct corerouter_peer *peers;
-
-	// when it reaches 0 the session can be destroyed
-	uint64_t refcnt;
 };
 
 void uwsgi_opt_corerouter(char *, char *, void *);
@@ -317,3 +316,4 @@ int uwsgi_cr_set_hooks(struct corerouter_peer *, ssize_t (*)(struct corerouter_p
 struct corerouter_peer *uwsgi_cr_peer_add(struct corerouter_session *);
 struct corerouter_peer *uwsgi_cr_peer_find_by_sid(struct corerouter_session *, uint32_t);
 void corerouter_close_peer(struct uwsgi_corerouter *, struct corerouter_peer *);
+struct uwsgi_rb_timer *corerouter_reset_timeout(struct uwsgi_corerouter *, struct corerouter_peer *);
diff --git a/plugins/http/common.h b/plugins/http/common.h
index 19b58764..1ff12119 100644
--- a/plugins/http/common.h
+++ b/plugins/http/common.h
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ struct http_session {
         char *path_info;
         uint16_t path_info_len;
 
-	int can_keepalive;
 	int force_chunked;
 
 #ifdef UWSGI_SSL
diff --git a/plugins/http/http.c b/plugins/http/http.c
index 23dfb6da..9f9cf3fe 100644
--- a/plugins/http/http.c
+++ b/plugins/http/http.c
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ struct uwsgi_option http_options[] = {
 	{"http-subscription-server", required_argument, 0, "enable the subscription server", uwsgi_opt_corerouter_ss, &uhttp, 0},
 	{"http-timeout", required_argument, 0, "set internal http socket timeout", uwsgi_opt_set_int, &uhttp.cr.socket_timeout, 0},
 	{"http-manage-expect", no_argument, 0, "manage the Expect HTTP request header", uwsgi_opt_true, &uhttp.manage_expect, 0},
-	{"http-keepalive", no_argument, 0, "HTTP 1.1 keepalive support (non-pipelined) requests", uwsgi_opt_true, &uhttp.keepalive, 0},
+	{"http-keepalive", optional_argument, 0, "HTTP 1.1 keepalive support (non-pipelined) requests", uwsgi_opt_set_int, &uhttp.keepalive, 0},
 	{"http-auto-chunked", no_argument, 0, "automatically transform output to chunked encoding during HTTP 1.1 keepalive (if needed)", uwsgi_opt_true, &uhttp.auto_chunked, 0},
 
 	{"http-raw-body", no_argument, 0, "blindly send HTTP body to backends (required for WebSockets and Icecast support in backends)", uwsgi_opt_true, &uhttp.raw_body, 0},
@@ -122,12 +122,12 @@ int http_add_uwsgi_header(struct corerouter_peer *peer, char *hh, uint16_t hhlen
 
 	if (!uwsgi_strncmp("CONTENT_LENGTH", 14, hh, keylen)) {
 		hr->content_length = uwsgi_str_num(val, vallen);
-		hr->can_keepalive = 0;
+		hr->session.can_keepalive = 0;
 	}
 
 	// in the future we could support chunked requests...
 	if (!uwsgi_strncmp("TRANSFER_ENCODING", 17, hh, keylen)) {
-		hr->can_keepalive = 0;
+		hr->session.can_keepalive = 0;
 	}
 
 	if (uwsgi_strncmp("CONTENT_TYPE", 12, hh, keylen) && uwsgi_strncmp("CONTENT_LENGTH", 14, hh, keylen)) {
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ int http_add_uwsgi_header(struct corerouter_peer *peer, char *hh, uint16_t hhlen
 
 	if (!uwsgi_strncmp("CONNECTION", 10, hh, keylen)) {
 		if (!uwsgi_strnicmp(val, vallen, "close", 5)) {
-			hr->can_keepalive = 0;
+			hr->session.can_keepalive = 0;
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ int http_headers_parse(struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
 				return 0;
 			if (uwsgi_buffer_append_keyval(out, "SERVER_PROTOCOL", 15, base, ptr - base)) return -1;
 			if (uhttp.keepalive && !uwsgi_strncmp("HTTP/1.1", 8, base, ptr-base)) {
-				hr->can_keepalive = 1;
+				hr->session.can_keepalive = 1;
 			}
 			ptr += 2;
 			break;
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ ssize_t hr_send_expect_continue(struct corerouter_peer *main_peer) {
 ssize_t hr_instance_write(struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
 	ssize_t len = cr_write(peer, "hr_instance_write()");
         // end on empty write
-        if (!len) return 0;
+        if (!len) { peer->session->can_keepalive = 0; return 0; }
 
         // the chunk has been sent, start (again) reading from client and instances
         if (cr_write_complete(peer)) {
@@ -492,10 +492,15 @@ ssize_t hr_instance_read(struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
 	struct http_session *hr = (struct http_session *) peer->session;
         ssize_t len = cr_read(peer, "hr_instance_read()");
         if (!len) {
-		if (hr->can_keepalive) {
+		if (hr->session.can_keepalive) {
 			peer->session->main_peer->disabled = 0;
-			peer->session->refcnt++;
 			hr->rnrn = 0;
+			if (uhttp.keepalive > 1) {
+				int orig_timeout = peer->session->corerouter->socket_timeout;
+				peer->session->corerouter->socket_timeout = uhttp.keepalive;
+				peer->session->main_peer->timeout = corerouter_reset_timeout(peer->session->corerouter, peer->session->main_peer);
+				peer->session->corerouter->socket_timeout = orig_timeout;
+			}
 			if (hr->force_chunked) {
 				if (!hr->last_chunked) {
 					hr->last_chunked = uwsgi_buffer_new(3);
@@ -513,7 +518,7 @@ ssize_t hr_instance_read(struct corerouter_peer *peer) {
 	}
 
 	// need to parse response headers
-	if (hr->can_keepalive) {
+	if (hr->session.can_keepalive) {
 		if (peer->r_parser_status != 4) {
 			int ret = hr_check_response_keepalive(peer);
 			if (ret < 0) return -1;
@@ -626,7 +631,7 @@ ssize_t http_parse(struct corerouter_peer *main_peer) {
         		new_peer->out->buf[2] = (uint8_t) ((pktsize >> 8) & 0xff);
 
 			if (hr->remains > 0) {
-				hr->can_keepalive = 0;
+				hr->session.can_keepalive = 0;
 				if (hr->content_length < hr->remains) { 
 					hr->remains = hr->content_length;
 					hr->content_length = 0;
@@ -637,7 +642,7 @@ ssize_t http_parse(struct corerouter_peer *main_peer) {
 				if (uwsgi_buffer_append(new_peer->out, main_peer->in->buf + hr->headers_size + 1, hr->remains)) return -1;
 			}
 
-			if (hr->can_keepalive) {
+			if (hr->session.can_keepalive) {
 				main_peer->disabled = 1;
 				// stop reading from the client
 				if (uwsgi_cr_set_hooks(main_peer, NULL, NULL)) return -1;
diff --git a/plugins/http/keepalive.c b/plugins/http/keepalive.c
index 6ec3683f..0f781e21 100644
--- a/plugins/http/keepalive.c
+++ b/plugins/http/keepalive.c
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ int http_response_parse(struct http_session *hr, struct uwsgi_buffer *ub, size_t
         // protocol
         for(i=0;i<len;i++) {
                 if (buf[i] == ' ') {
-			if (hr->can_keepalive && uwsgi_strncmp("HTTP/1.1", 8, buf, i)) {
+			if (hr->session.can_keepalive && uwsgi_strncmp("HTTP/1.1", 8, buf, i)) {
 				goto end;
 			}
                         if (i+1 >= len) return -1;;
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ int http_response_parse(struct http_session *hr, struct uwsgi_buffer *ub, size_t
                                 if (!colon) return -1;
                                 // security check
                                 if (colon+2 >= buf+len) return -1;
-				if (hr->can_keepalive) {
+				if (hr->session.can_keepalive) {
 					if (!uwsgi_strnicmp(key, colon-key, "Connection", 10)) {
 						if (!uwsgi_strnicmp(colon+2, h_len-((colon-key)+2), "close", 5)) {
 							goto end;
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ int http_response_parse(struct http_session *hr, struct uwsgi_buffer *ub, size_t
                 }
         }
 
-	if (hr->can_keepalive && !has_size) {
+	if (hr->session.can_keepalive && !has_size) {
 		if (uhttp.auto_chunked) {
 			char cr = buf[len-2];
 			char nl = buf[len-1];
@@ -109,12 +109,12 @@ int http_response_parse(struct http_session *hr, struct uwsgi_buffer *ub, size_t
 				return 0;
 			}
 		}
-		hr->can_keepalive = 0;
+		hr->session.can_keepalive = 0;
 	}
         return 0;
 
 end:
-	hr->can_keepalive = 0;
+	hr->session.can_keepalive = 0;
         return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/plugins/http/spdy3.c b/plugins/http/spdy3.c
index 7fb9455c..1f2100a1 100644
--- a/plugins/http/spdy3.c
+++ b/plugins/http/spdy3.c
@@ -575,7 +575,7 @@ ssize_t spdy_parse(struct corerouter_peer *main_peer) {
 		if (deflateSetDictionary(&hr->spdy_z_out, (Bytef *) SPDY_dictionary_txt, sizeof(SPDY_dictionary_txt)) != Z_OK) {
             		return -1;
             	}
-		hr->session.refcnt++;
+		cs->can_keepalive = 1;
 		hr->spdy_initialized = 1;
 
 		hr->spdy_phase = UWSGI_SPDY_PHASE_HEADER;