diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 9448c50f0f..be3f5fb7de 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -424,6 +424,17 @@ static CURL *get_curl_handle(void)
 
 	if (curl_http_proxy) {
 		curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_PROXY, curl_http_proxy);
+#if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x071800
+		if (starts_with(curl_http_proxy, "socks5"))
+			curl_easy_setopt(result,
+				CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_SOCKS5);
+		else if (starts_with(curl_http_proxy, "socks4a"))
+			curl_easy_setopt(result,
+				CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_SOCKS4A);
+		else if (starts_with(curl_http_proxy, "socks"))
+			curl_easy_setopt(result,
+				CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_SOCKS4);
+#endif
 	}
 #if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x070a07
 	curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH, CURLAUTH_ANY);