diff --git a/pkg/middleware/default_http_client.go b/pkg/middleware/default_http_client.go
index d81465f..16e8ac4 100644
--- a/pkg/middleware/default_http_client.go
+++ b/pkg/middleware/default_http_client.go
@@ -23,11 +23,16 @@ import (
 	"github.com/Azure/go-armbalancer"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/propagation"
+	"golang.org/x/net/http2"
 )
 
 var (
+	// defaultHTTPClient is configured with the defaultRoundTripper
 	defaultHTTPClient *http.Client
-	defaultTransport  http.RoundTripper
+	// defaultTransport is a pre-configured *http.Transport for http/2
+	defaultTransport *http.Transport
+	// defaultRoundTripper wraps the defaultTransport with arm balancer and otel propagation
+	defaultRoundTripper http.RoundTripper
 )
 
 // DefaultHTTPClient returns a shared http client, and transport leveraging armbalancer for
@@ -37,30 +42,62 @@ func DefaultHTTPClient() *http.Client {
 }
 
 func init() {
-	defaultTransport = armbalancer.New(armbalancer.Options{
+	defaultTransport = &http.Transport{
+		Proxy: http.ProxyFromEnvironment,
+		DialContext: (&net.Dialer{
+			Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
+			KeepAlive: 30 * time.Second,
+		}).DialContext,
+		ForceAttemptHTTP2:     true,
+		MaxIdleConns:          100,
+		MaxIdleConnsPerHost:   100,
+		IdleConnTimeout:       90 * time.Second,
+		TLSHandshakeTimeout:   10 * time.Second,
+		ExpectContinueTimeout: 1 * time.Second,
+		TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{
+			MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12,
+		},
+	}
+	// We call configureHttp2TransportPing() in the package init to ensure that our defaultTransport is always configured
+	// with the http2 additional settings that work around the issue described here:
+	// https://github.com/golang/go/issues/59690
+	// azure sdk related issue is here:
+	// https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/issues/21346#issuecomment-1699665586
+	configureHttp2TransportPing(defaultTransport)
+	defaultRoundTripper = armbalancer.New(armbalancer.Options{
 		// PoolSize is the number of clientside http/2 persistent connections
 		// we want to have configured in our transport. Note, that without clientside loadbalancing
 		// with arm, HTTP/2 Will force persistent connection to stick to a single arm instance, and will
 		// result in a substantial amount of throttling
-		PoolSize: 100,
-		Transport: &http.Transport{
-			Proxy: http.ProxyFromEnvironment,
-			DialContext: (&net.Dialer{
-				Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
-				KeepAlive: 30 * time.Second,
-			}).DialContext,
-			ForceAttemptHTTP2:     true,
-			MaxIdleConns:          100,
-			MaxIdleConnsPerHost:   100,
-			IdleConnTimeout:       90 * time.Second,
-			TLSHandshakeTimeout:   10 * time.Second,
-			ExpectContinueTimeout: 1 * time.Second,
-			TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{
-				MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12,
-			},
-		},
+		PoolSize:  100,
+		Transport: defaultTransport,
 	})
+
 	defaultHTTPClient = &http.Client{
-		Transport: otelhttp.NewTransport(defaultTransport, otelhttp.WithPropagators(propagation.TraceContext{})),
+		Transport: otelhttp.NewTransport(defaultRoundTripper, otelhttp.WithPropagators(propagation.TraceContext{})),
+	}
+}
+
+// configureHttp2Transport ensures that our defaultTransport is configured
+// with the http2 additional settings that work around the issue described here:
+// https://github.com/golang/go/issues/59690
+// azure sdk related issue is here:
+// https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/issues/21346#issuecomment-1699665586
+// This is called by the package init to ensure that our defaultTransport is always configured
+// you should not call this anywhere else.
+func configureHttp2TransportPing(tr *http.Transport) {
+	// http2Transport holds a reference to the default transport and configures "h2" middlewares that
+	// will use the below settings, making the standard http.Transport behave correctly for dropped connections
+	http2Transport, err := http2.ConfigureTransports(tr)
+	if err != nil {
+		// by initializing in init(), we know it is only called once.
+		// this errors if called twice.
+		panic(err)
 	}
+	// we give 10s to the server to respond to the ping. if no response is received,
+	// the transport will close the connection, so that the next request will open a new connection, and not
+	// hit a context deadline exceeded error.
+	http2Transport.PingTimeout = 10 * time.Second
+	// if no frame is received for 30s, the transport will issue a ping health check to the server.
+	http2Transport.ReadIdleTimeout = 30 * time.Second
 }
diff --git a/pkg/middleware/default_http_client_test.go b/pkg/middleware/default_http_client_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b05395
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/middleware/default_http_client_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+package middleware
+
+import (
+	"crypto/tls"
+	"net/http"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func TestConfigureHttp2TransportPing(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("transport should be setup with http2Transport h2 middleware", func(t *testing.T) {
+		tr := &http.Transport{
+			TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{
+				MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12,
+			},
+		}
+		require.NotContains(t, tr.TLSClientConfig.NextProtos, "h2")
+		configureHttp2TransportPing(tr)
+		require.Contains(t, tr.TLSClientConfig.NextProtos, "h2")
+	})
+
+	t.Run("configuring transport twice panics", func(t *testing.T) {
+		tr := &http.Transport{
+			TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{
+				MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12,
+			},
+		}
+		require.NotContains(t, tr.TLSClientConfig.NextProtos, "h2")
+		require.NotPanics(t, func() { configureHttp2TransportPing(tr) })
+		require.Panics(t, func() { configureHttp2TransportPing(tr) })
+		require.Contains(t, tr.TLSClientConfig.NextProtos, "h2")
+	})
+
+	t.Run("defaultTransport is configured with h2 by default", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// should panic because it's already configured
+		require.Panics(t, func() { configureHttp2TransportPing(defaultTransport) })
+		require.Contains(t, defaultTransport.TLSClientConfig.NextProtos, "h2")
+	})
+}