diff --git a/cas-client-core/pom.xml b/cas-client-core/pom.xml
index bdc4d34..20b9f72 100644
--- a/cas-client-core/pom.xml
+++ b/cas-client-core/pom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <parent>
         <groupId>org.jasig.cas</groupId>
-        <version>3.1.8</version>
+        <version>3.1.9-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <artifactId>cas-client</artifactId>
     </parent>
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
diff --git a/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/proxy/Cas20ProxyRetriever.java b/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/proxy/Cas20ProxyRetriever.java
index 1dc986e..59e3fec 100644
--- a/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/proxy/Cas20ProxyRetriever.java
+++ b/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/proxy/Cas20ProxyRetriever.java
@@ -60,44 +60,18 @@ public final class Cas20ProxyRetriever implements ProxyRetriever {
                                       final String targetService) {
 
         final String url = constructUrl(proxyGrantingTicketId, targetService);
-        HttpURLConnection conn = null;
-        try {
-            final URL constructedUrl = new URL(url);
-            conn = (HttpURLConnection) constructedUrl.openConnection();
+        final String response = CommonUtils.getResponseFromServer(url);
+        final String error = XmlUtils.getTextForElement(response, "proxyFailure");
 
-            final BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
-
-            String line;
-            final StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer(255);
-            final String response;
-
-            synchronized (stringBuffer) {
-                while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
-                    stringBuffer.append(line);
-                }
-                response = stringBuffer.toString();
-            }
-
-            final String error = XmlUtils.getTextForElement(response,
-                    "proxyFailure");
-
-            if (CommonUtils.isNotEmpty(error)) {
-                log.debug(error);
-                return null;
-            }
-
-            return XmlUtils.getTextForElement(response, "proxyTicket");
-        } catch (final Exception e) {
-            throw new RuntimeException(e);
-        } finally {
-            if (conn != null) {
-                conn.disconnect();
-            }
+        if (CommonUtils.isNotEmpty(error)) {
+            log.debug(error);
+            return null;
         }
+
+        return XmlUtils.getTextForElement(response, "proxyTicket");
     }
 
-    private String constructUrl(final String proxyGrantingTicketId,
-                                final String targetService) {
+    private String constructUrl(final String proxyGrantingTicketId, final String targetService) {
         try {
         	return this.casServerUrl + (this.casServerUrl.endsWith("/") ? "" : "/") + "proxy" + "?pgt="
             + proxyGrantingTicketId + "&targetService="
diff --git a/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/util/CommonUtils.java b/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/util/CommonUtils.java
index 5b7598d..200ab59 100644
--- a/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/util/CommonUtils.java
+++ b/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/util/CommonUtils.java
@@ -15,7 +15,12 @@ import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.net.URLEncoder;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.util.Collection;
 
 /**
@@ -137,7 +142,7 @@ public final class CommonUtils {
      * @param gateway where we should send gateway or not.
      * @return the fully constructed redirect url.
      */
-    public static final String constructRedirectUrl(final String casServerLoginUrl, final String serviceParameterName, final String serviceUrl, final boolean renew, final boolean gateway) {
+    public static String constructRedirectUrl(final String casServerLoginUrl, final String serviceParameterName, final String serviceUrl, final boolean renew, final boolean gateway) {
         try {
         return casServerLoginUrl + (casServerLoginUrl.indexOf("?") != -1 ? "&" : "?") + serviceParameterName + "="
                     + URLEncoder.encode(serviceUrl, "UTF-8")
@@ -181,6 +186,10 @@ public final class CommonUtils {
      *
      * @param request  the HttpServletRequest
      * @param response the HttpServletResponse
+     * @param service the configured service url (this will be used if not null)
+     * @param serverName the server name to  use to constuct the service url if the service param is empty
+     * @param artifactParameterName the artifact parameter name to remove (i.e. ticket)
+     * @param encode whether to encode the url or not (i.e. Jsession).    
      * @return the service url to use.
      */
     public static String constructServiceUrl(final HttpServletRequest request,
@@ -257,4 +266,52 @@ public final class CommonUtils {
         }
         return request.getQueryString() == null || request.getQueryString().indexOf(parameter) == -1 ? null : request.getParameter(parameter);       
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Contacts the remote URL and returns the response.
+     *
+     * @param constructedUrl the url to contact.
+     * @return the response.
+     */
+    public static String getResponseFromServer(final URL constructedUrl) {
+        HttpURLConnection conn = null;
+        try {
+            conn = (HttpURLConnection) constructedUrl.openConnection();
+
+            final BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
+
+            String line;
+            final StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer(255);
+
+            synchronized (stringBuffer) {
+                while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
+                    stringBuffer.append(line);
+                    stringBuffer.append("\n");
+                }
+                return stringBuffer.toString();
+            }
+        } catch (final Exception e) {
+            LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        } finally {
+            if (conn != null) {
+                conn.disconnect();
+            }
+        }
+
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Contacts the remote URL and returns the response.
+     *
+     * @param url the url to contact.
+     * @return the response.
+     */
+    public static String getResponseFromServer(final String url) {
+        try {
+            return getResponseFromServer(new URL(url));
+        } catch (final MalformedURLException e) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException(e);
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/validation/AbstractCasProtocolUrlBasedTicketValidator.java b/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/validation/AbstractCasProtocolUrlBasedTicketValidator.java
index edc10c5..2046fdf 100644
--- a/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/validation/AbstractCasProtocolUrlBasedTicketValidator.java
+++ b/cas-client-core/src/main/java/org/jasig/cas/client/validation/AbstractCasProtocolUrlBasedTicketValidator.java
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
  */
 package org.jasig.cas.client.validation;
 
+import org.jasig.cas.client.util.CommonUtils;
+
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
@@ -28,30 +30,6 @@ public abstract class AbstractCasProtocolUrlBasedTicketValidator extends Abstrac
      * Retrieves the response from the server by opening a connection and merely reading the response.
      */
     protected final String retrieveResponseFromServer(final URL validationUrl, final String ticket) {
-        HttpURLConnection connection = null;
-
-        try {
-            connection = (HttpURLConnection) validationUrl.openConnection();
-            final BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
-
-            String line;
-            final StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer(255);
-
-            synchronized (stringBuffer) {
-                while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
-                    stringBuffer.append(line);
-                    stringBuffer.append("\n");
-                }
-                return stringBuffer.toString();
-            }
-
-        } catch (final IOException e) {
-            log.error(e,e);
-            return null;
-        } finally {
-            if (connection != null) {
-                connection.disconnect();
-            }
-        }
+        return CommonUtils.getResponseFromServer(validationUrl);               
     }
 }
diff --git a/cas-client-integration-atlassian/pom.xml b/cas-client-integration-atlassian/pom.xml
index 9ebe77e..ff1421c 100644
--- a/cas-client-integration-atlassian/pom.xml
+++ b/cas-client-integration-atlassian/pom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <parent>
         <groupId>org.jasig.cas</groupId>
-        <version>3.1.8</version>
+        <version>3.1.9-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <artifactId>cas-client</artifactId>
     </parent>
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0164410..b95a910 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <project>
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>org.jasig.cas</groupId>
-    <version>3.1.8</version>
+    <version>3.1.9-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <artifactId>cas-client</artifactId>
     <packaging>pom</packaging>
     <name>JA-SIG CAS Client for Java</name>