diff --git a/lib/socks.c b/lib/socks.c
index 6ae98184d16ac640f8fa9309bd290d2b8f66c560..f08326dbecd744d1cb3ce2d236bddffbde3926da 100644
--- a/lib/socks.c
+++ b/lib/socks.c
@@ -398,9 +398,9 @@ CURLcode Curl_SOCKS5(const char *proxy_user,
 
   /* RFC1928 chapter 5 specifies max 255 chars for domain name in packet */
   if(!socks5_resolve_local && hostname_len > 255) {
-    infof(conn->data, "SOCKS5: server resolving disabled for hostnames of "
-          "length > 255 [actual len=%zu]\n", hostname_len);
-    socks5_resolve_local = TRUE;
+    failf(data, "SOCKS5: the destination hostname is too long to be "
+          "resolved remotely by the proxy.");
+    return CURLE_COULDNT_RESOLVE_HOST;
   }
 
   /* get timeout */
@@ -605,7 +605,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_SOCKS5(const char *proxy_user,
 
   if(!socks5_resolve_local) {
     socksreq[len++] = 3; /* ATYP: domain name = 3 */
-    socksreq[len++] = (char) hostname_len; /* address length */
+    socksreq[len++] = (unsigned char) hostname_len; /* address length */
     memcpy(&socksreq[len], hostname, hostname_len); /* address str w/o NULL */
     len += hostname_len;
     msnprintf(dest, sizeof(dest), "%s:%d", hostname, remote_port);