diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/FaultMessageResolver.java b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/FaultMessageResolver.java
index 1fa5b0ec..b6f2e6b0 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/FaultMessageResolver.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/FaultMessageResolver.java
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import org.springframework.ws.WebServiceMessage;
 
 /**
- * Defines the interface for objects than can resolve fault {@link WebServiceMessage}.
+ * Defines the interface for objects than can resolve fault {@link WebServiceMessage}s.
  *
  * @author Arjen Poutsma
  * @since 1.0.0
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplate.java b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplate.java
index ccd6e1cc..5fb557c9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplate.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplate.java
@@ -121,6 +121,8 @@ public class WebServiceTemplate extends WebServiceAccessor implements WebService
 
     private String defaultUri;
 
+    private boolean checkConnectionForError = true;
+
     private boolean checkConnectionForFault = true;
 
     private ClientInterceptor[] interceptors;
@@ -194,11 +196,30 @@ public class WebServiceTemplate extends WebServiceAccessor implements WebService
     }
 
     /**
-     * Indicates whether the {@link FaultAwareWebServiceConnection#hasFault() connection} should be checked for fault
-     * indicators (<code>true</code>), or whether we should rely on the {@link FaultAwareWebServiceMessage#hasFault()
-     * message} only (<code>false</code>). The default is <code>true</code>.
+     * Indicates whether the {@linkplain WebServiceConnection#hasError() connection} should be checked for error
+     * indicators (<code>true</code>), or whether these should be ignored (<code>false</code>). The default is
+     * <code>true</code>.
      * <p/>
-     * When using a HTTP transport, this property defines whether to check the HTTP response status code for fault
+     * When using an HTTP transport, this property defines whether to check the HTTP response status code is in the 2xx
+     * Successful range. Both the SOAP specification and the WS-I Basic Profile define that a Web service must return a
+     * "200 OK" or "202 Accepted" HTTP status code for a normal response. Setting this property to <code>false</code>
+     * allows this template to deal with non-conformant services.
+     *
+     * @see #hasError(WebServiceConnection, WebServiceMessage)
+     * @see <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE-SOAP-20000508/#_Toc478383529">SOAP 1.1 specification</a>
+     * @see <a href="http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/BasicProfile-1.1.html#HTTP_Success_Status_Codes">WS-I Basic
+     *      Profile</a>
+     */
+    public void setCheckConnectionForError(boolean checkConnectionForError) {
+        this.checkConnectionForError = checkConnectionForError;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Indicates whether the {@linkplain FaultAwareWebServiceConnection#hasFault() connection} should be checked for
+     * fault indicators (<code>true</code>), or whether we should rely on the {@link
+     * FaultAwareWebServiceMessage#hasFault() message} only (<code>false</code>). The default is <code>true</code>.
+     * <p/>
+     * When using an HTTP transport, this property defines whether to check the HTTP response status code for fault
      * indicators. Both the SOAP specification and the WS-I Basic Profile define that a Web service must return a "500
      * Internal Server Error" HTTP status code if the response envelope is a Fault. Setting this property to
      * <code>false</code> allows this template to deal with non-conformant services.
@@ -540,8 +561,9 @@ public class WebServiceTemplate extends WebServiceAccessor implements WebService
      * @throws IOException in case of I/O errors
      */
     protected boolean hasError(WebServiceConnection connection, WebServiceMessage request) throws IOException {
-        if (connection.hasError() && checkConnectionForFault) {
-            if (connection instanceof FaultAwareWebServiceConnection) {
+        if (checkConnectionForError && connection.hasError()) {
+            // could be a fault
+            if (checkConnectionForFault && connection instanceof FaultAwareWebServiceConnection) {
                 FaultAwareWebServiceConnection faultConnection = (FaultAwareWebServiceConnection) connection;
                 return !(faultConnection.hasFault() && request instanceof FaultAwareWebServiceMessage);
             }
@@ -562,6 +584,9 @@ public class WebServiceTemplate extends WebServiceAccessor implements WebService
      *         WebServiceMessageExtractor)}, if any
      */
     protected Object handleError(WebServiceConnection connection, WebServiceMessage request) throws IOException {
+        if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
+            logger.debug("Received error for request [" + request + "]");
+        }
         throw new WebServiceTransportException(connection.getErrorMessage());
     }
 
@@ -667,8 +692,10 @@ public class WebServiceTemplate extends WebServiceAccessor implements WebService
      *         WebServiceMessageExtractor)}, if any
      */
     protected Object handleFault(WebServiceConnection connection, MessageContext messageContext) throws IOException {
-        if (getFaultMessageResolver() != null) {
+        if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
             logger.debug("Received Fault message for request [" + messageContext.getRequest() + "]");
+        }
+        if (getFaultMessageResolver() != null) {
             getFaultMessageResolver().resolveFault(messageContext.getResponse());
             return null;
         }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpSenderConnection.java b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpSenderConnection.java
index b33c5665..9df2a86f 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpSenderConnection.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpSenderConnection.java
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractHttpSenderConnection extends AbstractSenderConnect
         return isGzipResponse() ? new GZIPInputStream(inputStream) : inputStream;
     }
 
-    /** Determine whether the given response is a GZIP response. */
+    /** Determine whether the response is a GZIP response. */
     private boolean isGzipResponse() throws IOException {
         Iterator iterator = getResponseHeaders(HttpTransportConstants.HEADER_CONTENT_ENCODING);
         if (iterator.hasNext()) {
@@ -106,7 +106,17 @@ public abstract class AbstractHttpSenderConnection extends AbstractSenderConnect
      */
 
     public final boolean hasFault() throws IOException {
-        return HttpTransportConstants.STATUS_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR == getResponseCode();
+        return HttpTransportConstants.STATUS_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR == getResponseCode() && isXmlResponse();
+    }
+
+    /** Determine whether the response is a XML message. */
+    private boolean isXmlResponse() throws IOException {
+        Iterator iterator = getResponseHeaders(HttpTransportConstants.HEADER_CONTENT_TYPE);
+        if (iterator.hasNext()) {
+            String contentType = ((String) iterator.next()).toLowerCase();
+            return contentType.indexOf("xml") != -1;
+        }
+        return false;
     }
 
     public final void setFault(boolean fault) {
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplateIntegrationTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplateIntegrationTest.java
index 43fe38b2..c96368a8 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplateIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/client/core/WebServiceTemplateIntegrationTest.java
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ public class WebServiceTemplateIntegrationTest extends XMLTestCase {
             //expected
         }
         template.setCheckConnectionForFault(false);
+        template.setCheckConnectionForError(false);
         try {
             template.sendSourceAndReceiveToResult("http://localhost:8888/soap/badRequestFault",
                     new StringSource(content), result);
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpWebServiceMessageSenderIntegrationTestCase.java b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpWebServiceMessageSenderIntegrationTestCase.java
index 5bf0a7dc..4bb4f2d9 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpWebServiceMessageSenderIntegrationTestCase.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/transport/http/AbstractHttpWebServiceMessageSenderIntegrationTestCase.java
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
 import javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMResult;
 
+import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.XMLTestCase;
+import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.XMLUnit;
+import org.mortbay.jetty.Server;
+import org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.Context;
+import org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder;
+
 import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
 import org.springframework.ws.WebServiceMessage;
 import org.springframework.ws.WebServiceMessageFactory;
@@ -45,12 +51,6 @@ import org.springframework.ws.transport.WebServiceConnection;
 import org.springframework.xml.transform.StringResult;
 import org.springframework.xml.transform.StringSource;
 
-import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.XMLTestCase;
-import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.XMLUnit;
-import org.mortbay.jetty.Server;
-import org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.Context;
-import org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder;
-
 public abstract class AbstractHttpWebServiceMessageSenderIntegrationTestCase extends XMLTestCase {
 
     private Server jettyServer;
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractHttpWebServiceMessageSenderIntegrationTestCase ext
     public void testSendAndReceiveFault() throws Exception {
         MyServlet servlet = new MyServlet();
         servlet.setResponseStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
+        servlet.setResponse(true);
         jettyContext.addServlet(new ServletHolder(servlet), "/");
         jettyServer.start();
         FaultAwareWebServiceConnection connection =