diff --git a/core/src/main/java/io/grpc/internal/DnsNameResolver.java b/core/src/main/java/io/grpc/internal/DnsNameResolver.java
index 15f3685f619..c2dfa41e41c 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/io/grpc/internal/DnsNameResolver.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/io/grpc/internal/DnsNameResolver.java
@@ -140,6 +140,15 @@ public void run() {
           resolving = true;
         }
         try {
+          if (System.getenv("GRPC_PROXY_EXP") != null) {
+            ResolvedServerInfoGroup servers = ResolvedServerInfoGroup.builder()
+                .add(new ResolvedServerInfo(
+                    InetSocketAddress.createUnresolved(host, port), Attributes.EMPTY))
+                .build();
+            savedListener.onUpdate(Collections.singletonList(servers), Attributes.EMPTY);
+            return;
+          }
+
           try {
             inetAddrs = getAllByName(host);
           } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
diff --git a/interop-testing/src/main/java/io/grpc/testing/integration/TestServiceClient.java b/interop-testing/src/main/java/io/grpc/testing/integration/TestServiceClient.java
index e9f2e7d8f80..85f89e8c10c 100644
--- a/interop-testing/src/main/java/io/grpc/testing/integration/TestServiceClient.java
+++ b/interop-testing/src/main/java/io/grpc/testing/integration/TestServiceClient.java
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@
 import io.netty.handler.ssl.SslContext;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
-import java.net.InetAddress;
-import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
-import java.net.UnknownHostException;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;
 
@@ -304,16 +301,6 @@ private class Tester extends AbstractInteropTest {
     @Override
     protected ManagedChannel createChannel() {
       if (!useOkHttp) {
-        InetAddress address;
-        try {
-          address = InetAddress.getByName(serverHost);
-          if (serverHostOverride != null) {
-            // Force the hostname to match the cert the server uses.
-            address = InetAddress.getByAddress(serverHostOverride, address.getAddress());
-          }
-        } catch (UnknownHostException ex) {
-          throw new RuntimeException(ex);
-        }
         SslContext sslContext = null;
         if (useTestCa) {
           try {
@@ -323,7 +310,8 @@ protected ManagedChannel createChannel() {
             throw new RuntimeException(ex);
           }
         }
-        return NettyChannelBuilder.forAddress(new InetSocketAddress(address, serverPort))
+        return NettyChannelBuilder.forAddress(serverHost, serverPort)
+            .overrideAuthority(serverHostOverride)
             .flowControlWindow(65 * 1024)
             .negotiationType(useTls ? NegotiationType.TLS : NegotiationType.PLAINTEXT)
             .sslContext(sslContext)
diff --git a/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransport.java b/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransport.java
index ce063f6c946..d745409a0b7 100644
--- a/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransport.java
+++ b/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransport.java
@@ -194,8 +194,9 @@ public Runnable start(Listener transportListener) {
      * that it may begin buffering writes.
      */
     b.handler(negotiationHandler);
+    channel = b.register().channel();
     // Start the connection operation to the server.
-    channel = b.connect(address).addListener(new ChannelFutureListener() {
+    channel.connect(address).addListener(new ChannelFutureListener() {
       @Override
       public void operationComplete(ChannelFuture future) throws Exception {
         if (!future.isSuccess()) {
@@ -209,7 +210,7 @@ public void operationComplete(ChannelFuture future) throws Exception {
           future.channel().pipeline().fireExceptionCaught(future.cause());
         }
       }
-    }).channel();
+    });
     // Start the write queue as soon as the channel is constructed
     handler.startWriteQueue(channel);
     // This write will have no effect, yet it will only complete once the negotiationHandler