diff --git a/packages/web3-providers-http/README.md b/packages/web3-providers-http/README.md
index 528e883fb71..ac46853390c 100644
--- a/packages/web3-providers-http/README.md
+++ b/packages/web3-providers-http/README.md
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ This will expose the `Web3HttpProvider` object on the window object.
 // in node.js
 var Web3HttpProvider = require('web3-providers-http');
 
-var http = new Web3HttpProvider('http://localhost:8545');
+var options = {
+    timeout: 20000, // milliseconds,
+    headers: [{name: 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin', value: '*'},{...}]
+};
+var http = new Web3HttpProvider('http://localhost:8545', options);
 ```
 
 
diff --git a/packages/web3-providers-http/package.json b/packages/web3-providers-http/package.json
index f83a8708116..b53670d7033 100644
--- a/packages/web3-providers-http/package.json
+++ b/packages/web3-providers-http/package.json
@@ -8,6 +8,6 @@
     "main": "src/index.js",
     "dependencies": {
         "web3-core-helpers": "1.0.0-beta.34",
-        "xhr2": "0.1.4"
+        "xhr2-cookies": "1.1.0"
     }
 }
diff --git a/packages/web3-providers-http/src/index.js b/packages/web3-providers-http/src/index.js
index 38b2c548f4e..a79e792a32d 100644
--- a/packages/web3-providers-http/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/web3-providers-http/src/index.js
@@ -23,16 +23,17 @@
  */
 
 var errors = require('web3-core-helpers').errors;
-var XHR2 = require('xhr2'); // jshint ignore: line
+var XHR2 = require('xhr2-cookies').XMLHttpRequest // jshint ignore: line
 
 /**
  * HttpProvider should be used to send rpc calls over http
  */
-var HttpProvider = function HttpProvider(host, timeout, headers) {
+var HttpProvider = function HttpProvider(host, options) {
+    options = options || {};
     this.host = host || 'http://localhost:8545';
-    this.timeout = timeout || 0;
+    this.timeout = options.timeout || 0;
+    this.headers = options.headers;
     this.connected = false;
-    this.headers = headers;
 };
 
 HttpProvider.prototype._prepareRequest = function(){
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@ HttpProvider.prototype._prepareRequest = function(){
 
     request.open('POST', this.host, true);
     request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type','application/json');
+    request.timeout = this.timeout && this.timeout !== 1 ? this.timeout : 0;
+    request.withCredentials = true;
 
     if(this.headers) {
         this.headers.forEach(function(header) {
@@ -61,7 +64,6 @@ HttpProvider.prototype.send = function (payload, callback) {
     var _this = this;
     var request = this._prepareRequest();
 
-
     request.onreadystatechange = function() {
         if (request.readyState === 4 && request.timeout !== 1) {
             var result = request.responseText;
diff --git a/packages/web3-providers-ws/src/index.js b/packages/web3-providers-ws/src/index.js
index bf1b6553afc..915e833dc6f 100644
--- a/packages/web3-providers-ws/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/web3-providers-ws/src/index.js
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ var errors = require('web3-core-helpers').errors;
 var Ws = null;
 var _btoa = null;
 var parseURL = null;
-if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
+if (typeof window !== 'undefined' && typeof window.WebSocket !== 'undefined') {
     Ws = window.WebSocket;
     _btoa = btoa;
     parseURL = function(url) {
@@ -39,8 +39,18 @@ if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
     _btoa = function(str) {
       return Buffer(str).toString('base64');
     };
-    // Web3 supports Node.js 5, so we need to use the legacy URL API
-    parseURL = require('url').parse;
+    var url = require('url');
+    if (url.URL) {
+        // Use the new Node 6+ API for parsing URLs that supports username/password
+        var newURL = url.URL;
+        parseURL = function(url) {
+            return new newURL(url);
+        };
+    }
+    else {
+        // Web3 supports Node.js 5, so fall back to the legacy URL API if necessary
+        parseURL = require('url').parse;
+    }
 }
 // Default connection ws://localhost:8546
 
@@ -60,11 +70,12 @@ var WebsocketProvider = function WebsocketProvider(url, options)  {
     // pass through with any additional headers supplied in constructor
     var parsedURL = parseURL(url);
     var headers = options.headers || {};
+    var protocol = options.protocol || undefined;
     if (parsedURL.username && parsedURL.password) {
         headers.authorization = 'Basic ' + _btoa(parsedURL.username + ':' + parsedURL.password);
     }
 
-    this.connection = new Ws(url, undefined, undefined, headers);
+    this.connection = new Ws(url, protocol, undefined, headers);
 
     this.addDefaultEvents();
 
diff --git a/test/helpers/FakeXHR2.js b/test/helpers/FakeXHR2.js
index d9f3493a9b4..36340fa8a8c 100644
--- a/test/helpers/FakeXHR2.js
+++ b/test/helpers/FakeXHR2.js
@@ -33,4 +33,4 @@ FakeXHR2.prototype.send = function (payload) {
     }
 };
 
-module.exports = FakeXHR2;
+module.exports = {XMLHttpRequest: FakeXHR2};
diff --git a/test/httpprovider.js b/test/httpprovider.js
index 590d2698242..de545bae522 100644
--- a/test/httpprovider.js
+++ b/test/httpprovider.js
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ var SandboxedModule = require('sandboxed-module');
 SandboxedModule.registerBuiltInSourceTransformer('istanbul');
 var HttpProvider = SandboxedModule.require('../packages/web3-providers-http', {
     requires: {
-        'xhr2': require('./helpers/FakeXHR2'),
+        'xhr2-cookies': require('./helpers/FakeXHR2'),
         // 'xmlhttprequest': require('./helpers/FakeXMLHttpRequest')
     },
     singleOnly: true
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ var HttpProvider = SandboxedModule.require('../packages/web3-providers-http', {
 describe('web3-providers-http', function () {
     describe('prepareRequest', function () {
         it('should set request header', function () {
-            var provider = new HttpProvider('http://localhost:8545', 0 , [{name: 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin',  value: '*'}]);
+            var provider = new HttpProvider('http://localhost:8545', {headers: [{name: 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin',  value: '*'}]});
             var result = provider._prepareRequest();
 
             assert.equal(typeof result, 'object');