diff --git a/src/soap.c b/src/soap.c
index bb91ee7..c73498c 100644
--- a/src/soap.c
+++ b/src/soap.c
@@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ static void collector(void *ud, const char *data, size_t len)
 	ne_buffer_append(buf, data, len);
 }
 
+int ssl_verify_fn(void *userdata, int failures, const ne_ssl_certificate *cert)
+{
+	/* we consider every server certificate as ok;
+	 * easy debugging, lousy security
+	 */
+	return 0;
+}
+
 
 char* soap_request(char *url, char *body, char *content_type)
 {
@@ -42,13 +50,19 @@ char* soap_request(char *url, char *body, char *content_type)
 	int rc;
 
 	rc = ne_uri_parse(url, &parsed_uri);
-	if (!rc) {
+	if (rc) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "ne_uri_parse failed\n");
 		return NULL;
 	}
+	if (strcmp(parsed_uri.scheme, "https") == 0 && ! parsed_uri.port) {
+		/* some neon version are buggy and don't set a default port */
+		parsed_uri.port = 443;
+	}
 
 	ne_sock_init();
 	sess = ne_session_create(parsed_uri.scheme, parsed_uri.host,
 			parsed_uri.port);
+	ne_ssl_set_verify(sess, ssl_verify_fn, NULL);
 
 	req = ne_request_create(sess, "POST", parsed_uri.path);
 	ne_add_response_body_reader(req, ne_accept_2xx, collector, buf);
@@ -57,7 +71,9 @@ char* soap_request(char *url, char *body, char *content_type)
 	ne_set_request_body_buffer(req, body, strlen(body));
 
 	rc = ne_request_dispatch(req);
-	if (!rc) {
+	if (rc) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "ne_request_dispatch failed, %d\n", rc);
+		fprintf(stderr, "Error was: %s\n", ne_get_error(sess));
 		ne_request_destroy(req);
 		ne_session_destroy(sess);
 		return NULL;
@@ -65,6 +81,7 @@ char* soap_request(char *url, char *body, char *content_type)
 
 	status = ne_get_status(req);
 	if (status->code != 200) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "status->code = %d\n", status->code);
 		ne_request_destroy(req);
 		ne_session_destroy(sess);
 		return NULL;