diff --git a/src/h2load.cc b/src/h2load.cc
index 47b0d7e5..c5467c32 100644
--- a/src/h2load.cc
+++ b/src/h2load.cc
@@ -124,6 +124,13 @@ int Client::connect()
 {
   if(config.scheme == "https") {
     ssl = SSL_new(worker->ssl_ctx);
+
+    auto config = worker->config;
+
+    if(!util::numeric_host(config->host.c_str())) {
+      SSL_set_tlsext_host_name(ssl, config->host.c_str());
+    }
+
     bev = bufferevent_openssl_socket_new(worker->evbase, -1, ssl,
                                          BUFFEREVENT_SSL_CONNECTING,
                                          BEV_OPT_DEFER_CALLBACKS);
diff --git a/src/nghttp.cc b/src/nghttp.cc
index f8c1bd19..b860686e 100644
--- a/src/nghttp.cc
+++ b/src/nghttp.cc
@@ -444,10 +444,11 @@ struct HttpClient {
       } else {
         host_string = host.c_str();
       }
-      if (!SSL_set_tlsext_host_name(ssl, host_string)) {
-        std::cerr << ERR_error_string(ERR_get_error(), nullptr) << std::endl;
-        return -1;
+
+      if (!util::numeric_host(host_string)) {
+        SSL_set_tlsext_host_name(ssl, host_string);
       }
+
       bev = bufferevent_openssl_socket_new(evbase, -1, ssl,
                                            BUFFEREVENT_SSL_CONNECTING,
                                            BEV_OPT_DEFER_CALLBACKS);
diff --git a/src/shrpx_http2_session.cc b/src/shrpx_http2_session.cc
index 37557b9e..0cfa116b 100644
--- a/src/shrpx_http2_session.cc
+++ b/src/shrpx_http2_session.cc
@@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ int Http2Session::initiate_connection()
         sni_name = get_config()->downstream_host;
       }
 
-      if(!ssl::numeric_host(sni_name)) {
+      if(!util::numeric_host(sni_name)) {
         // TLS extensions: SNI. There is no documentation about the return
         // code for this function (actually this is macro wrapping SSL_ctrl
         // at the time of this writing).
diff --git a/src/shrpx_ssl.cc b/src/shrpx_ssl.cc
index f8d64c2b..3e95ba2d 100644
--- a/src/shrpx_ssl.cc
+++ b/src/shrpx_ssl.cc
@@ -485,20 +485,6 @@ ClientHandler* accept_connection
   }
 }
 
-bool numeric_host(const char *hostname)
-{
-  struct addrinfo hints;
-  struct addrinfo* res;
-  memset(&hints, 0, sizeof(hints));
-  hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
-  hints.ai_flags = AI_NUMERICHOST;
-  if(getaddrinfo(hostname, nullptr, &hints, &res)) {
-    return false;
-  }
-  freeaddrinfo(res);
-  return true;
-}
-
 namespace {
 bool tls_hostname_match(const char *pattern, const char *hostname)
 {
@@ -541,7 +527,7 @@ int verify_hostname(const char *hostname,
                     const std::vector<std::string>& ip_addrs,
                     const std::string& common_name)
 {
-  if(numeric_host(hostname)) {
+  if(util::numeric_host(hostname)) {
     if(ip_addrs.empty()) {
       return util::strieq(common_name.c_str(), hostname) ? 0 : -1;
     }
diff --git a/src/shrpx_ssl.h b/src/shrpx_ssl.h
index 1bea4033..de476a05 100644
--- a/src/shrpx_ssl.h
+++ b/src/shrpx_ssl.h
@@ -52,8 +52,6 @@ ClientHandler* accept_connection
  evutil_socket_t fd,
  sockaddr *addr, int addrlen);
 
-bool numeric_host(const char *hostname);
-
 int check_cert(SSL *ssl);
 
 // Retrieves DNS and IP address in subjectAltNames and commonName from
diff --git a/src/util.cc b/src/util.cc
index 199103b7..56e1b7fb 100644
--- a/src/util.cc
+++ b/src/util.cc
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@
 #include "util.h"
 
 #include <time.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/socket.h>
+#include <netdb.h>
 
 #include <cassert>
 #include <cstdio>
@@ -529,6 +532,20 @@ size_t EvbufferBuffer::get_buflen() const
   return buflen_;
 }
 
+bool numeric_host(const char *hostname)
+{
+  struct addrinfo hints;
+  struct addrinfo* res;
+  memset(&hints, 0, sizeof(hints));
+  hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
+  hints.ai_flags = AI_NUMERICHOST;
+  if(getaddrinfo(hostname, nullptr, &hints, &res)) {
+    return false;
+  }
+  freeaddrinfo(res);
+  return true;
+}
+
 } // namespace util
 
 } // namespace nghttp2
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 2473a76a..0b40d82f 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -449,6 +449,8 @@ private:
   size_t buflen_;
 };
 
+bool numeric_host(const char *hostname);
+
 } // namespace util
 
 } // namespace nghttp2