diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a27dc6fab..049a0f1ba 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.xceptance</groupId>
     <artifactId>xlt</artifactId>
-    <version>7.3.0</version>
+    <version>7.3.1</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>XLT</name>
@@ -462,6 +462,18 @@
             <groupId>me.tongfei</groupId>
             <artifactId>progressbar</artifactId>
             <version>0.9.2</version>
+            <exclusions>
+                <!-- jline is overridden below -->
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>org.jline</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>jline</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.jline</groupId>
+            <artifactId>jline</artifactId>
+            <version>3.23.0</version>
         </dependency>
 
         <!-- ================= -->
diff --git a/resultbrowser/src/js/json-tree.js b/resultbrowser/src/js/json-tree.js
index efb7735b4..c4376cde8 100644
--- a/resultbrowser/src/js/json-tree.js
+++ b/resultbrowser/src/js/json-tree.js
@@ -437,7 +437,9 @@
          * @param {(string) => void} handler - consumes the JSON path of the target node
          */
         onJsonNodeSelected(handler) {
-            attachEventHandlers(this.tree, (node) => handler(node.getJsonPath()));
+            if (this.tree) {
+                attachEventHandlers(this.tree, (node) => handler(node.getJsonPath()));
+            }
         }   
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImpl.java b/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImpl.java
index 5b8d5f4c8..b5660a4ff 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImpl.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImpl.java
@@ -181,6 +181,15 @@ class InstrumentedSocketImpl extends SocketImpl
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Initializes this class for instrumentation.
+     */
+    public static void initialize()
+    {
+        // Calling this method the first time implicitly triggers the static initializer block above to be executed
+        // once. Apart from that, there is nothing more to do here.
+    }
+
     /**
      * The actual socket implementation.
      */
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImplFactory.java b/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImplFactory.java
index 8396aec6a..729b95ca7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImplFactory.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/InstrumentedSocketImplFactory.java
@@ -24,6 +24,15 @@
  */
 class InstrumentedSocketImplFactory implements SocketImplFactory
 {
+    /**
+     * Constructor.
+     */
+    public InstrumentedSocketImplFactory()
+    {
+        // try to initialize and throw if initialization fails
+        InstrumentedSocketImpl.initialize();
+    }
+
     /**
      * {@inheritDoc}
      */
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/XltSockets.java b/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/XltSockets.java
index c16c4aac6..1f1cfd23e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/XltSockets.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/engine/socket/XltSockets.java
@@ -15,10 +15,15 @@
  */
 package com.xceptance.xlt.engine.socket;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.Socket;
 import java.net.SocketImplFactory;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.exception.ExceptionUtils;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+import com.xceptance.xlt.api.engine.Session;
+import com.xceptance.xlt.api.util.XltException;
 import com.xceptance.xlt.api.util.XltProperties;
 import com.xceptance.xlt.common.XltConstants;
 
@@ -35,6 +40,8 @@
  */
 public final class XltSockets
 {
+    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(XltSockets.class);
+
     private static final String PROP_COLLECT_NETWORK_DATA = XltConstants.XLT_PACKAGE_PATH + ".socket.collectNetworkData";
 
     static
@@ -46,9 +53,16 @@ public final class XltSockets
                 // set the global socket impl factory
                 Socket.setSocketImplFactory(new InstrumentedSocketImplFactory());
             }
-            catch (final IOException ex)
+            catch (final Throwable ex)
             {
-                throw new RuntimeException("Failed to initialize XLT sockets", ex);
+                if (Session.getCurrent().isLoadTest())
+                {
+                    throw new XltException("Failed to initialize XLT sockets", ex);
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    LOG.warn("Failed to initialize XLT sockets: {}", ExceptionUtils.getRootCauseMessage(ex));
+                }
             }
         }
     }