diff --git a/spec/integ/matrix-client-opts.spec.js b/spec/integ/matrix-client-opts.spec.js
index 606674e4d..7c256fd58 100644
--- a/spec/integ/matrix-client-opts.spec.js
+++ b/spec/integ/matrix-client-opts.spec.js
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import HttpBackend from "matrix-mock-request";
 import {MatrixClient} from "../../src/matrix";
 import {MatrixScheduler} from "../../src/scheduler";
 import {MemoryStore} from "../../src/store/memory";
+import {MatrixError} from "../../src/http-api";
 
 describe("MatrixClient opts", function() {
     const baseUrl = "http://localhost.or.something";
@@ -132,10 +133,10 @@ describe("MatrixClient opts", function() {
         });
 
         it("shouldn't retry sending events", function(done) {
-            httpBackend.when("PUT", "/txn1").fail(500, {
+            httpBackend.when("PUT", "/txn1").fail(500, new MatrixError({
                 errcode: "M_SOMETHING",
                 error: "Ruh roh",
-            });
+            }));
             client.sendTextMessage("!foo:bar", "a body", "txn1").then(function(res) {
                 expect(false).toBe(true, "sendTextMessage resolved but shouldn't");
             }, function(err) {
diff --git a/src/http-api.js b/src/http-api.js
index 99a889eb6..bce0534ed 100644
--- a/src/http-api.js
+++ b/src/http-api.js
@@ -276,6 +276,9 @@ MatrixHttpApi.prototype = {
                         callbacks.clearTimeout(xhr.timeout_timer);
                         var resp;
                         try {
+                            if (xhr.status === 0) {
+                                throw new AbortError();
+                            }
                             if (!xhr.responseText) {
                                 throw new Error('No response body.');
                             }
@@ -790,10 +793,15 @@ const requestCallback = function(
 
     return function(err, response, body) {
         if (err) {
-            // browser-request just throws normal Error objects,
-            // not `TypeError`s like fetch does. So just assume any
-            // error is due to the connection.
-            err = new ConnectionError("request failed", err);
+            // the unit tests use matrix-mock-request, which throw the string "aborted" when aborting a request.
+            // See https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-mock-request/blob/3276d0263a561b5b8326b47bae720578a2c7473a/src/index.js#L48
+            const aborted = err.name === "AbortError" || err === "aborted";
+            if (!aborted && !(err instanceof MatrixError)) {
+                // browser-request just throws normal Error objects,
+                // not `TypeError`s like fetch does. So just assume any
+                // error is due to the connection.
+                err = new ConnectionError("request failed", err);
+            }
         }
         if (!err) {
             try {
@@ -930,3 +938,13 @@ export class ConnectionError extends Error {
         return this._cause;
     }
 }
+
+export class AbortError extends Error {
+    constructor() {
+        super("Operation aborted");
+    }
+
+    get name() {
+        return "AbortError";
+    }
+}