diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/UriBuilder.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/UriBuilder.java
index e144b32..73a90a1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/UriBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/UriBuilder.java
@@ -56,23 +56,30 @@ public class UriBuilder {
     {
         String publicIpAddress = "";
         HttpURLConnection conn = null;
+        String urlString = "https://api.ipify.org/";
         try {
-            conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL("https://api.ipify.org/").openConnection();
+            conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(urlString).openConnection();
             conn.setConnectTimeout(60_000);
             conn.setReadTimeout(60_000);
             conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
             conn.connect();
+
+            int responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();
+            if ( responseCode != 200 ) {
+                logger.warn("Cannot get the publicIP address for this machine, as \"" + urlString + "\" returned the HTTP-error-code: " + responseCode);
+                return null;
+            }
+
             try ( BufferedReader bf = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()))) {
                 publicIpAddress = bf.readLine().trim();
             }
         } catch (Exception e) {
-            logger.warn("Cannot get the publicIP address for this machine!", e);
+            logger.warn("Cannot get the publicIP address for this machine, from \"" + urlString + "\"!", e);
             return null;
         } finally {
             if ( conn != null )
                 conn.disconnect();
         }
-
         return publicIpAddress;
     }