diff --git a/webssh/handler.py b/webssh/handler.py
index 87b19c6..0b1f2f7 100644
--- a/webssh/handler.py
+++ b/webssh/handler.py
@@ -427,12 +427,16 @@ class IndexHandler(MixinHandler, tornado.web.RequestHandler):
         ]
 
         for command in commands:
-            _, stdout, _ = ssh.exec_command(command, get_pty=True)
-            data = stdout.read()
-            logging.debug('{!r} => {!r}'.format(command, data))
-            result = self.parse_encoding(data)
-            if result:
-                return result
+            try:
+                _, stdout, _ = ssh.exec_command(command, get_pty=True)
+            except paramiko.SSHException as exc:
+                logging.info(str(exc))
+            else:
+                data = stdout.read()
+                logging.debug('{!r} => {!r}'.format(command, data))
+                result = self.parse_encoding(data)
+                if result:
+                    return result
 
         logging.warn('Could not detect the default ecnoding.')
         return 'utf-8'