diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index 075f61ce7..0c84dbf96 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -38,4 +38,4 @@ on_finish:
   - ps: |
       Import-Module $env:APPVEYOR_BUILD_FOLDER\contrib\win32\openssh\AppveyorHelper.psm1 -DisableNameChecking
       Publish-Artifact
-      
+      
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/contrib/win32/win32compat/fileio.c b/contrib/win32/win32compat/fileio.c
index 3e2073cf0..248910236 100644
--- a/contrib/win32/win32compat/fileio.c
+++ b/contrib/win32/win32compat/fileio.c
@@ -413,8 +413,6 @@ cleanup:
 	return ret;
 }
 
-
-#define NULL_DEVICE "/dev/null"
 /* open() implementation. Uses CreateFile to open file, console, device, etc */
 struct w32_io*
 fileio_open(const char *path_utf8, int flags, u_short mode)
@@ -433,7 +431,7 @@ fileio_open(const char *path_utf8, int flags, u_short mode)
 	}
 
 	/* if opening null device, point to Windows equivalent */
-	if (strncmp(path_utf8, NULL_DEVICE, strlen(NULL_DEVICE)) == 0) 
+	if (strncmp(path_utf8, NULL_DEVICE, strlen(NULL_DEVICE)+1) == 0) 
 		path_utf8 = "NUL";
 
 	if ((path_utf16 = utf8_to_utf16(path_utf8)) == NULL) {
diff --git a/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc.c b/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc.c
index 871996f07..1836fcdb4 100644
--- a/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc.c
+++ b/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc.c
@@ -240,14 +240,27 @@ w32_fopen_utf8(const char *path, const char *mode)
 	FILE* f;
 	char utf8_bom[] = { 0xEF,0xBB,0xBF };
 	char first3_bytes[3];
+	int status = 1;
 
 	if (mode[1] != '\0') {
 		errno = ENOTSUP;
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
-	if (MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, path, -1, wpath, PATH_MAX) == 0 ||
-	    MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, mode, -1, wmode, 5) == 0) {
+	if(NULL == path) { 
+		errno = EINVAL;
+		debug3("fopen - ERROR:%d", errno);
+		return NULL; 
+	}
+
+	/* if opening null device, point to Windows equivalent */
+	if (0 == strncmp(path, NULL_DEVICE, strlen(NULL_DEVICE)+1))
+		wcsncpy_s(wpath, PATH_MAX, L"NUL", 3);
+	else
+		status = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, path, -1, wpath, PATH_MAX);
+
+	if ((0 == status) ||
+	    (0 == MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, mode, -1, wmode, 5))) {
 		errno = EFAULT;
 		debug3("WideCharToMultiByte failed for %c - ERROR:%d", path, GetLastError());
 		return NULL;
diff --git a/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc_internal.h b/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc_internal.h
index 6a6f92a30..0d7903be9 100644
--- a/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc_internal.h
+++ b/contrib/win32/win32compat/misc_internal.h
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 #define SSH_ASYNC_STDOUT "SSH_ASYNC_STDOUT"
 #define SSH_ASYNC_STDERR "SSH_ASYNC_STDERR"
 
+#define NULL_DEVICE "/dev/null"
+
 #define IS_INVALID_HANDLE(h) ( ((NULL == h) || (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == h)) ? 1 : 0 )
 
 /* removes first '/' for Windows paths that are unix styled. Ex: /c:/ab.cd */
diff --git a/regress/pesterTests/KeyUtils.Tests.ps1 b/regress/pesterTests/KeyUtils.Tests.ps1
index ae898f9bb..7793dc04b 100644
--- a/regress/pesterTests/KeyUtils.Tests.ps1
+++ b/regress/pesterTests/KeyUtils.Tests.ps1
@@ -313,6 +313,7 @@ Describe "E2E scenarios for ssh key management" -Tags "CI" {
     Context "$tC - ssh-keyscan test cases" {
         BeforeAll {
             $tI=1
+            $port = $OpenSSHTestInfo["Port"]
             Remove-item (join-path $testDir "$tC.$tI.out.txt") -force -ErrorAction Ignore
         }
         BeforeEach {
@@ -321,25 +322,25 @@ Describe "E2E scenarios for ssh key management" -Tags "CI" {
         AfterAll{$tC++}
 
 		It "$tC.$tI - ssh-keyscan with default arguments" {
-			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -p 22 github.com 2>&1 > $outputFile"
-			$outputFile | Should Contain 'github.com ssh-rsa.*' 			
+			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -p $port 127.0.0.1 2>&1 > $outputFile"
+			$outputFile | Should Contain '.*ssh-rsa.*'
 		}
 
         It "$tC.$tI - ssh-keyscan with -p" {
-			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -p 22 github.com 2>&1 > $outputFile"
-			$outputFile | Should Contain 'github.com ssh-rsa.*' 			
+			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -p $port 127.0.0.1 2>&1 > $outputFile"
+			$outputFile | Should Contain '.*ssh-rsa.*'
 		}
 
 		It "$tC.$tI - ssh-keyscan with -f" {
-			Set-Content -Path tmp.txt -Value "github.com"
-			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -f tmp.txt 2>&1 > $outputFile"
-			$outputFile | Should Contain 'github.com ssh-rsa.*' 			
+			Set-Content -Path tmp.txt -Value "127.0.0.1"
+			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -p $port -f tmp.txt 2>&1 > $outputFile"
+			$outputFile | Should Contain '.*ssh-rsa.*'
 		}
 
 		It "$tC.$tI - ssh-keyscan with -f -t" {
-			Set-Content -Path tmp.txt -Value "github.com"
-			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -f tmp.txt -t rsa,dsa 2>&1 > $outputFile"
-			$outputFile | Should Contain 'github.com ssh-rsa.*' 			
+			Set-Content -Path tmp.txt -Value "127.0.0.1"
+			cmd /c "ssh-keyscan -p $port -f tmp.txt -t rsa,dsa 2>&1 > $outputFile"
+			$outputFile | Should Contain '.*ssh-rsa.*'
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/regress/unittests/win32compat/file_tests.c b/regress/unittests/win32compat/file_tests.c
index ae04883aa..72cdaaff1 100644
--- a/regress/unittests/win32compat/file_tests.c
+++ b/regress/unittests/win32compat/file_tests.c
@@ -204,6 +204,15 @@ void file_simple_fileio()
 		ASSERT_INT_EQ(retValue, 0);
 	}
 	
+	{
+		// test null device 
+		FILE *fp = fopen("/dev/null", "r");
+		ASSERT_PTR_NE(fp, NULL);
+
+		f = open("/dev/null", O_RDONLY);
+		ASSERT_INT_NE(f, -1);
+	}
+
 	TEST_DONE();
 }
 
@@ -429,7 +438,7 @@ file_miscellaneous_tests()
 	int f1 = dup(f);
 	ASSERT_INT_EQ(f1, -1);
 	HANDLE h = w32_fd_to_handle(f);
-	ASSERT_HANDLE(h, retValue);
+	ASSERT_HANDLE(h);
 	close(f);
 
 	char *tmp_filename_1 = "tmp_1.txt";
@@ -443,16 +452,16 @@ file_miscellaneous_tests()
 		free(tmp);
 
 	h = w32_fd_to_handle(STDIN_FILENO);
-	ASSERT_HANDLE(h, retValue);
+	ASSERT_HANDLE(h);
 
 	h = w32_fd_to_handle(STDOUT_FILENO);
-	ASSERT_HANDLE(h, retValue);
+	ASSERT_HANDLE(h);
 
 	h = w32_fd_to_handle(STDERR_FILENO);
-	ASSERT_HANDLE(h, retValue);
+	ASSERT_HANDLE(h);
 
 	retValue = w32_allocate_fd_for_handle(h, FALSE);
-	ASSERT_HANDLE(h, retValue);
+	ASSERT_HANDLE(h);
 
 	TEST_DONE();
 }
diff --git a/regress/unittests/win32compat/tests.h b/regress/unittests/win32compat/tests.h
index 69f956dc0..aa93a22e2 100644
--- a/regress/unittests/win32compat/tests.h
+++ b/regress/unittests/win32compat/tests.h
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ void miscellaneous_tests();
 char *dup_str(char *inStr);
 void delete_dir_recursive(char *full_dir_path);
 
-#define ASSERT_HANDLE(handle,retValue) \
-{ \
+#define ASSERT_HANDLE(handle) \
+{\
 	ASSERT_PTR_NE(handle, INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE); \
 	ASSERT_PTR_NE(handle, 0); \
 }
diff --git a/sshconnect.c b/sshconnect.c
index 7774c0f9d..8da712f07 100644
--- a/sshconnect.c
+++ b/sshconnect.c
@@ -564,10 +564,12 @@ ssh_exchange_identification(int timeout_ms)
 	size_t len;
 	int fdsetsz, remaining, rc;
 	struct timeval t_start, t_remaining;
-	fd_set *fdset;
+	fd_set *readfds;
+	fd_set *exceptfds;
 
 	fdsetsz = howmany(connection_in + 1, NFDBITS) * sizeof(fd_mask);
-	fdset = xcalloc(1, fdsetsz);
+	readfds = xcalloc(1, fdsetsz);
+	exceptfds = xcalloc(1, fdsetsz);
 
 	send_client_banner(connection_out, 0);
 
@@ -578,9 +580,10 @@ ssh_exchange_identification(int timeout_ms)
 			if (timeout_ms > 0) {
 				gettimeofday(&t_start, NULL);
 				ms_to_timeval(&t_remaining, remaining);
-				FD_SET(connection_in, fdset);
-				rc = select(connection_in + 1, fdset, NULL,
-				    fdset, &t_remaining);
+				FD_SET(connection_in, readfds);
+				FD_SET(connection_in, exceptfds);
+				rc = select(connection_in + 1, readfds, NULL,
+					exceptfds, &t_remaining);
 				ms_subtract_diff(&t_start, &remaining);
 				if (rc == 0 || remaining <= 0)
 					fatal("Connection timed out during "
@@ -620,7 +623,8 @@ ssh_exchange_identification(int timeout_ms)
 		debug("ssh_exchange_identification: %s", buf);
 	}
 	server_version_string = xstrdup(buf);
-	free(fdset);
+	free(readfds);
+	free(exceptfds);
 
 	/*
 	 * Check that the versions match.  In future this might accept