diff --git a/lib/mongo/connection.rb b/lib/mongo/connection.rb
index c26bdf7..1dc5edf 100644
--- a/lib/mongo/connection.rb
+++ b/lib/mongo/connection.rb
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ module Mongo
     STANDARD_HEADER_SIZE = 16
     RESPONSE_HEADER_SIZE = 20
 
-    MONGODB_URI_MATCHER = /(([.\w\d]+):([\w\d]+)@)?([.\w\d]+)(:([\w\d]+))?(\/([-\d\w]+))?/
+    MONGODB_URI_MATCHER = /(([.\w\d]+):([\w\d]+)@)?([-.\w\d]+)(:([\w\d]+))?(\/([-\d\w]+))?/
     MONGODB_URI_SPEC = "mongodb://[username:password@]host1[:port1][,host2[:port2],...[,hostN[:portN]]][/database]"
 
     attr_reader :logger, :size, :host, :port, :nodes, :auths, :sockets, :checked_out
diff --git a/test/unit/connection_test.rb b/test/unit/connection_test.rb
index a387001..fbd1534 100644
--- a/test/unit/connection_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/connection_test.rb
@@ -66,6 +66,12 @@ class ConnectionTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
         assert_equal ['localhost', 27017], @conn.nodes[0]
       end
 
+      should "allow a complex host names" do
+        host_name = "foo.bar-12345.org"
+        @conn = Connection.from_uri("mongodb://#{host_name}", :connect => false)
+        assert_equal [host_name, 27017], @conn.nodes[0]
+      end
+
       should "parse a uri specifying multiple nodes" do
         @conn = Connection.from_uri("mongodb://localhost:27017,mydb.com:27018", :connect => false)
         assert_equal ['localhost', 27017], @conn.nodes[0]