diff --git a/src/download_page.py b/src/download_page.py
index 3fdb267..15f9b57 100644
--- a/src/download_page.py
+++ b/src/download_page.py
@@ -41,10 +41,10 @@ def download (platform, url, args, verbosity, return_http_code=False, follow_loc
 	except pycurl.error as e:
 		error (str(e), verbosity, platform)
 		return None
-	response_code = c.getinfo(c.RESPONSE_CODE)
+	response_code = int(c.getinfo(c.RESPONSE_CODE))
 	c.close()
 	debug (url + " downloaded!", verbosity, platform)
-	if int(response_code) in range(400,599):
+	if response_code in range(400,599):
 		error ("Server returned " + str(response_code), verbosity, platform)
 	else:
 		debug ("Server returned " + str(response_code), verbosity, platform)
diff --git a/src/rsstube.py b/src/rsstube.py
index 63bff3c..5a0e01a 100755
--- a/src/rsstube.py
+++ b/src/rsstube.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import opml
 
 # enter a URL and attempt to return a feed URL
 def get_feed (url, verbosity=3, network=True, curl_args=None):
+	feed = None
+
 	from determine_site import determine_site
 	debug ("Attempting to determine site...", verbosity)
 	site = determine_site (url)
@@ -23,7 +25,7 @@ def get_feed (url, verbosity=3, network=True, curl_args=None):
 
 	elif network:
 		from download_page import download
-		page = download (None, url, curl_args, verbosity)
+		page,response_code = download (None, url, curl_args, verbosity, True)
 		if page is None:
 			error ("Failed to download " + url, verbosity)
 			return None,None
@@ -43,9 +45,12 @@ def get_feed (url, verbosity=3, network=True, curl_args=None):
 				return feed,software
 
 		# try generic extractor even if software is known
-		debug ("Trying generic extractor...", verbosity)
-		extractor = importlib.import_module("extractors.generic")
-		feed = extractor.extract(url, page, network, verbosity, curl_args)
+		# don't try generic extractor if we got an error
+		if response_code in range(200,299):
+			debug ("Trying generic extractor...", verbosity)
+			extractor = importlib.import_module("extractors.generic")
+			feed = extractor.extract(url, page, network, verbosity, curl_args)
+
 		if feed is None:
 			error ("Unable to get RSS feed for " + url, verbosity, "generic")
 		else: