diff --git a/remote_stream_wrapper.inc b/remote_stream_wrapper.inc
index 4f8358a..3659c21 100644
--- a/remote_stream_wrapper.inc
+++ b/remote_stream_wrapper.inc
@@ -572,7 +572,9 @@ class DrupalRemoteStreamWrapperHttp extends DrupalRemoteStreamWrapper {
     stream_wrapper_unregister($scheme);
     stream_wrapper_restore($scheme);
 
-    $this->handle = @fopen($this->uri, $mode, FALSE);
+    $this->updateStreamContext();
+
+    $this->handle = @fopen($this->uri, $mode, FALSE, $this->context);
 
     stream_wrapper_unregister($scheme);
     stream_wrapper_register($scheme, get_class($this));
@@ -581,6 +583,46 @@ class DrupalRemoteStreamWrapperHttp extends DrupalRemoteStreamWrapper {
   }
 
   /**
+   * Updates the stream context to match drupal_http_request().
+   */
+  protected function updateStreamContext() {
+    $options = stream_context_get_options($this->context);
+
+    // Set options according to drupal_http_request().
+    $options['http']['user_agent'] = 'Drupal (+http://drupal.org/)';
+    $options['http']['timeout'] = 30.0;
+    $options['http']['max_redirects'] = 3;
+
+    // Don't allow user-agent overriding.
+    unset($options['http']['header']['User-Agent']);
+
+    // Use a proxy if one is defined and the host is not on the excluded list.
+    $proxy_server = variable_get('proxy_server', '');
+    if ($proxy_server && _drupal_http_use_proxy(parse_url($this->uri, PHP_URL_HOST))) {
+      $options['http']['request_fulluri'] = TRUE;
+      $options['http']['proxy'] = 'tcp://' . $proxy_server . ':' . variable_get('proxy_port', 8080);
+
+      // Add in username and password to Proxy-Authorization header if needed.
+      if ($proxy_username = variable_get('proxy_username', '')) {
+        $proxy_password = variable_get('proxy_password', '');
+        $options['http']['header']['Proxy-Authorization'] = 'Basic ' . base64_encode($proxy_username . (!empty($proxy_password) ? ':' . $proxy_password : ''));
+      }
+      // Some proxies reject requests with any User-Agent headers, while others
+      // require a specific one.
+      $proxy_user_agent = variable_get('proxy_user_agent', '');
+      // The default value matches neither condition.
+      if ($proxy_user_agent === NULL) {
+        unset($options['http']['user_agent']);
+      }
+      elseif ($proxy_user_agent) {
+        $options['http']['user_agent'] = $proxy_user_agent;
+      }
+    }
+
+    stream_context_set_option($this->context, $options);
+  }
+
+  /**
    * {@inheritdoc}
    */
   public function stream_read($count) {