diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
index 12ce79fa9..bb62851dc 100644
--- a/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/__init__.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ see https://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/contributing.html#running-tests
 """
 
 import os
+import socket
 
 # ignore system-wide proxies for tests
 # which would send requests to a totally unsuspecting server
@@ -25,6 +26,15 @@ tests_datadir = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)),
                              'sample_data')
 
 
+# In some environments accessing a non-existing host doesn't raise an
+# error. In such cases we're going to skip tests which rely on it.
+try:
+    socket.getaddrinfo('non-existing-host', 80)
+    NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE = True
+except socket.gaierror:
+    NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE = False
+
+
 def get_testdata(*paths):
     """Return test data"""
     path = os.path.join(tests_datadir, *paths)
diff --git a/tests/test_command_shell.py b/tests/test_command_shell.py
index 16c9559b5..33189e9be 100644
--- a/tests/test_command_shell.py
+++ b/tests/test_command_shell.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from twisted.internet import defer
 from scrapy.utils.testsite import SiteTest
 from scrapy.utils.testproc import ProcessTest
 
-from tests import tests_datadir
+from tests import tests_datadir, NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE
 
 
 class ShellTest(ProcessTest, SiteTest, unittest.TestCase):
@@ -109,6 +109,8 @@ class ShellTest(ProcessTest, SiteTest, unittest.TestCase):
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def test_dns_failures(self):
+        if NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE:
+            raise unittest.SkipTest("Non-existing hosts are resolvable")
         url = 'www.somedomainthatdoesntexi.st'
         errcode, out, err = yield self.execute([url, '-c', 'item'], check_code=False)
         self.assertEqual(errcode, 1, out or err)
diff --git a/tests/test_crawl.py b/tests/test_crawl.py
index 7bda3bef2..f9ffcd6bb 100644
--- a/tests/test_crawl.py
+++ b/tests/test_crawl.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import logging
 from ipaddress import IPv4Address
 from socket import gethostbyname
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
+import unittest
 
 from pytest import mark
 from testfixtures import LogCapture
@@ -17,6 +18,7 @@ from scrapy.exceptions import StopDownload
 from scrapy.http import Request
 from scrapy.http.response import Response
 from scrapy.utils.python import to_unicode
+from tests import NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE
 from tests.mockserver import MockServer
 from tests.spiders import (
     AsyncDefAsyncioGenComplexSpider,
@@ -137,6 +139,8 @@ class CrawlTestCase(TestCase):
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def test_retry_dns_error(self):
+        if NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE:
+            raise unittest.SkipTest("Non-existing hosts are resolvable")
         crawler = self.runner.create_crawler(SimpleSpider)
         with LogCapture() as log:
             # try to fetch the homepage of a non-existent domain
diff --git a/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py b/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
index 72f52121e..883960084 100644
--- a/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
+++ b/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import shutil
 import sys
 import tempfile
 from typing import Optional, Type
-from unittest import mock
+from unittest import mock, SkipTest
 
 from testfixtures import LogCapture
 from twisted.cred import checkers, credentials, portal
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ from scrapy.spiders import Spider
 from scrapy.utils.misc import create_instance
 from scrapy.utils.python import to_bytes
 from scrapy.utils.test import get_crawler, skip_if_no_boto
+from tests import NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE
 from tests.mockserver import (
     Echo,
     ForeverTakingResource,
@@ -791,6 +792,8 @@ class Http11ProxyTestCase(HttpProxyTestCase):
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def test_download_with_proxy_https_timeout(self):
         """ Test TunnelingTCP4ClientEndpoint """
+        if NON_EXISTING_RESOLVABLE:
+            raise SkipTest("Non-existing hosts are resolvable")
         http_proxy = self.getURL('')
         domain = 'https://no-such-domain.nosuch'
         request = Request(