diff --git a/lib/proxy/request.rb b/lib/proxy/request.rb
index c0fd4df9b..5a59ee956 100644
--- a/lib/proxy/request.rb
+++ b/lib/proxy/request.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 require 'net/http'
 require 'net/https'
+require 'net/http/persistent'
 require 'uri'
 require 'cgi'
 
@@ -15,9 +16,10 @@ def query_string(input = {})
 
     def create_get(path, query = {}, headers = {})
       uri = uri(path)
-      req = Net::HTTP::Get.new("#{uri.path || '/'}?#{query_string(query)}")
+      uri.query = query_string(query)
+      req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
       req = add_headers(req, headers)
-      req
+      [uri, req]
     end
 
     def uri(path)
@@ -39,13 +41,13 @@ def create_post(path, body, headers = {}, query = {})
       req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri)
       req = add_headers(req, headers)
       req.body = body
-      req
+      [uri, req]
     end
   end
 
   class ForemanRequest
-    def send_request(request)
-      http.request(request)
+    def send_request(uri, request)
+      http.request(uri, request)
     end
 
     def request_factory
@@ -63,11 +65,10 @@ def http
     private
 
     def http_init
-      http             = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
-      http.use_ssl     = uri.scheme == 'https'
+      http             = Net::HTTP::Persistent.new(name: 'foreman')
       http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
 
-      if http.use_ssl?
+      if uri.scheme == 'https'
         ca_file = Proxy::SETTINGS.foreman_ssl_ca || Proxy::SETTINGS.ssl_ca_file
         certificate = Proxy::SETTINGS.foreman_ssl_cert || Proxy::SETTINGS.ssl_certificate
         private_key = Proxy::SETTINGS.foreman_ssl_key || Proxy::SETTINGS.ssl_private_key
diff --git a/modules/puppet_proxy_common/api_request.rb b/modules/puppet_proxy_common/api_request.rb
index e5ece8a32..6c433e53f 100644
--- a/modules/puppet_proxy_common/api_request.rb
+++ b/modules/puppet_proxy_common/api_request.rb
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ def delete(path, timeout = 60, additional_headers = {})
     end
 
     def create_http_context(uri, timeout)
+      # TODO: Net::HTTP::Persistent.new
       http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
       http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'
       http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
diff --git a/modules/registration/proxy_request.rb b/modules/registration/proxy_request.rb
index 6ad9e99ee..a42042a6c 100644
--- a/modules/registration/proxy_request.rb
+++ b/modules/registration/proxy_request.rb
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@
 module Proxy::Registration
   class ProxyRequest < ::Proxy::HttpRequest::ForemanRequest
     def global_register(request)
-      proxy_req = request_factory.create_get '/register',
-                                             request_params(request),
-                                             headers(request)
+      uri, proxy_req = request_factory.create_get '/register',
+                                                  request_params(request),
+                                                  headers(request)
 
-      send_request(proxy_req)
+      send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     end
 
     # we support two way of sending data - either a JSON or url encoded data
@@ -18,19 +18,19 @@ def host_register(request)
         # also request.params contain the same data that is in request.body, just parsed to hash,
         # in case they are nested (e.g. host hash) we need this causes problem during CGI escaping
         # therefore we only add url, everything else should be in body in this type of request
-        proxy_req = request_factory.create_post '/register',
-                                                request.body.read,
-                                                headers(request).merge("Content-Type" => request.content_type),
-                                                { url: register_url(request) }
+        uri, proxy_req = request_factory.create_post '/register',
+                                                     request.body.read,
+                                                     headers(request).merge("Content-Type" => request.content_type),
+                                                     { url: register_url(request) }
       else
         # the application/json request body contains the data - JSON as a string, query contains only the URL
-        proxy_req = request_factory.create_post '/register',
-                                                request.body.read,
-                                                headers(request),
-                                                request_params(request)
+        uri, proxy_req = request_factory.create_post '/register',
+                                                     request.body.read,
+                                                     headers(request),
+                                                     request_params(request)
       end
 
-      send_request(proxy_req)
+      send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     end
 
     private
diff --git a/modules/templates/proxy_request.rb b/modules/templates/proxy_request.rb
index bbb6d4ad9..7ba39115a 100644
--- a/modules/templates/proxy_request.rb
+++ b/modules/templates/proxy_request.rb
@@ -38,15 +38,15 @@ def call_template(method, path, env, params, body = '')
       proxy_headers["X-Forwarded-For"] = env['REMOTE_ADDR']
       proxy_headers["Content-Type"] = params["Content-Type"] if params["Content-Type"]
       if method == :get
-        proxy_req = request_factory.create_get(path, opts, proxy_headers)
+        uri, proxy_req = request_factory.create_get(path, opts, proxy_headers)
       elsif method == :post
-        proxy_req = request_factory.create_post(path, body, proxy_headers, opts)
+        uri, proxy_req = request_factory.create_post(path, body, proxy_headers, opts)
       else
         raise "Unknown method: #{method}"
       end
       logger.debug "Retrieving a template from %s%s" % [uri, proxy_req.path]
       logger.debug "HTTP headers: #{proxy_headers.inspect}"
-      res = send_request(proxy_req)
+      res = send_request(uri, proxy_req)
       # You get a 201 from the 'built' URL
       raise ::Proxy::Error::HttpError.new(res.code.to_i, nil, "Error retrieving #{path} for #{opts.inspect} from #{uri.host}: #{res.class}") unless ["200", "201"].include?(res.code)
       res.body
diff --git a/smart_proxy.gemspec b/smart_proxy.gemspec
index 4dc05065d..6a6dd2825 100644
--- a/smart_proxy.gemspec
+++ b/smart_proxy.gemspec
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.add_dependency 'base64'
   s.add_dependency 'json'
   s.add_dependency 'logging'
+  s.add_dependency 'net-http-persistent', '~> 4.0'
   s.add_dependency 'ostruct'
   s.add_dependency 'rack', '>= 1.3'
   s.add_dependency 'rexml', '~> 3.2'
diff --git a/test/request_test.rb b/test/request_test.rb
index 81d6f53b0..f7fb9fc17 100644
--- a/test/request_test.rb
+++ b/test/request_test.rb
@@ -18,15 +18,15 @@ def setup
 
   def test_get
     stub_request(:get, @foreman_url + '/path').to_return(:status => [200, 'OK'], :body => "body")
-    proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_get("/path")
-    result = @request.send_request(proxy_req)
+    uri, proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_get("/path")
+    result = @request.send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     assert_equal("body", result.body)
   end
 
   def test_get_with_headers
     stub_request(:get, @foreman_url + '/path?a=b').with(:headers => {"h1" => "header"}).to_return(:status => [200, 'OK'], :body => "body")
-    proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_get("/path", {"a" => "b"}, "h1" => "header")
-    result = @request.send_request(proxy_req)
+    uri, proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_get("/path", {"a" => "b"}, "h1" => "header")
+    result = @request.send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     assert_equal("body", result.body)
   end
 
@@ -42,15 +42,15 @@ def test_get_with_nested_params
           {"repo" => "repo2", "repo_gpg_key_url" => "key2"},
         ],
         "update_packages" => "false" }
-    proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_get("/register", request_params, "h1" => "header")
-    result = @request.send_request(proxy_req)
+    uri, proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_get("/register", request_params, "h1" => "header")
+    result = @request.send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     assert_equal("body", result.body)
   end
 
   def test_post
     stub_request(:post, @foreman_url + '/path').with(:body => "body").to_return(:status => [200, 'OK'], :body => "body")
-    proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_post("/path", "body")
-    result = @request.send_request(proxy_req)
+    uri, proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_post("/path", "body")
+    result = @request.send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     assert_equal("body", result.body)
   end
 
@@ -66,8 +66,8 @@ def test_post_with_nested_params
           {"repo" => "repo2", "repo_gpg_key_url" => "key2"},
         ],
         "update_packages" => "false" }
-    proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_post "/register", {"body" => "body"}, {"h1" => "header"}, request_params
-    result = @request.send_request(proxy_req)
+    uri, proxy_req = @request.request_factory.create_post "/register", {"body" => "body"}, {"h1" => "header"}, request_params
+    result = @request.send_request(uri, proxy_req)
     assert_equal("body", result.body)
   end
 end
diff --git a/test/templates/template_proxy_request_test.rb b/test/templates/template_proxy_request_test.rb
index a942f34e9..5a418d574 100644
--- a/test/templates/template_proxy_request_test.rb
+++ b/test/templates/template_proxy_request_test.rb
@@ -52,7 +52,9 @@ def test_template_requests_via_post
         headers: {
           'Accept'          => ['*/*', 'application/json,version=2'],
           'Accept-Encoding' => 'gzip;q=1.0,deflate;q=0.6,identity;q=0.3',
+          'Connection'      => 'keep-alive',
           'Content-Type'    => 'application/json',
+          'Keep-Alive'      => '30',
           'User-Agent'      => 'Ruby',
           'X-Forwarded-For' => '1.2.3.4',
         }).