diff --git a/msal/authority.py b/msal/authority.py
index faf11603..bfb73e15 100644
--- a/msal/authority.py
+++ b/msal/authority.py
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ def user_realm_discovery(self, username, correlation_id=None, response=None):
 def canonicalize(authority_or_auth_endpoint):
     # Returns (url_parsed_result, hostname_in_lowercase, tenant)
     authority = urlparse(authority_or_auth_endpoint)
-    if authority.scheme == "https":
+    if authority.scheme == "https" and authority.hostname:
         parts = authority.path.split("/")
         first_part = parts[1] if len(parts) >= 2 and parts[1] else None
         if authority.hostname.endswith(_CIAM_DOMAIN_SUFFIX):  # CIAM
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ def canonicalize(authority_or_auth_endpoint):
             return authority, authority.hostname, parts[1]
     raise ValueError(
         "Your given address (%s) should consist of "
-        "an https url with a minimum of one segment in a path: e.g. "
+        "an https url with hostname and a minimum of one segment in a path: e.g. "
         "https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant} "
         "or https://{tenant_name}.ciamlogin.com/{tenant} "
         "or https://{tenant_name}.b2clogin.com/{tenant_name}.onmicrosoft.com/policy"
diff --git a/msal/managed_identity.py b/msal/managed_identity.py
index fe76691f..422b76e3 100644
--- a/msal/managed_identity.py
+++ b/msal/managed_identity.py
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 import json
 import logging
 import os
-import socket
 import sys
 import time
 from urllib.parse import urlparse  # Python 3+
@@ -146,7 +145,10 @@ class ManagedIdentityClient(object):
         (like what a ``PublicClientApplication`` does),
         not a token with application permissions for an app.
     """
-    __instance, _tenant = None, "managed_identity"  # Placeholders
+    __instance = "localhost"  # We used to get this value from socket.getfqdn()
+        # but it is unreliable because getfqdn() either hangs or returns empty value
+        # on some misconfigured machines
+    _tenant = "managed_identity"
     _TOKEN_SOURCE = "token_source"
     _TOKEN_SOURCE_IDP = "identity_provider"
     _TOKEN_SOURCE_CACHE = "cache"
@@ -252,11 +254,6 @@ def __init__(
         self._token_cache = token_cache or TokenCache()
         self._client_capabilities = client_capabilities
 
-    def _get_instance(self):
-        if self.__instance is None:
-            self.__instance = socket.getfqdn()  # Moved from class definition to here
-        return self.__instance
-
     def acquire_token_for_client(
         self,
         *,
@@ -302,7 +299,7 @@ def acquire_token_for_client(
                 target=[resource],
                 query=dict(
                     client_id=client_id_in_cache,
-                    environment=self._get_instance(),
+                    environment=self.__instance,
                     realm=self._tenant,
                     home_account_id=None,
                 ),
@@ -344,7 +341,7 @@ def acquire_token_for_client(
                     client_id=client_id_in_cache,
                     scope=[resource],
                     token_endpoint="https://{}/{}".format(
-                        self._get_instance(), self._tenant),
+                        self.__instance, self._tenant),
                     response=result,
                     params={},
                     data={},
diff --git a/tests/test_authority.py b/tests/test_authority.py
index 3fd1fce1..312037ff 100644
--- a/tests/test_authority.py
+++ b/tests/test_authority.py
@@ -190,6 +190,10 @@ def test_canonicalize_rejects_tenantless_host_with_trailing_slash(self):
         with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
             canonicalize("https://no.tenant.example.com/")
 
+    def test_canonicalize_rejects_empty_host(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            canonicalize("https:///tenant")
+
 
 @unittest.skipIf(os.getenv("TRAVIS_TAG"), "Skip network io during tagged release")
 class TestAuthorityInternalHelperUserRealmDiscovery(unittest.TestCase):
diff --git a/tests/test_mi.py b/tests/test_mi.py
index 864d258c..bf1faedd 100644
--- a/tests/test_mi.py
+++ b/tests/test_mi.py
@@ -190,8 +190,12 @@ def test_happy_path_of_vm(self):
             headers={'Metadata': 'true'},
             )
 
-    @patch("msal.managed_identity.socket.getfqdn", new=lambda: "MixedCaseHostName")
-    def test_happy_path_of_windows_vm(self):
+    @patch.object(ManagedIdentityClient, "_ManagedIdentityClient__instance", "MixedCaseHostName")
+    def test_happy_path_of_theoretical_mixed_case_hostname(self):
+        """Historically, we used to get the host name from socket.getfqdn(),
+        which could return a mixed-case host name on Windows.
+        Although we no longer use getfqdn(), we still keep this test case to ensure we tolerate it.
+        """
         self.test_happy_path_of_vm()
 
     @patch.dict(os.environ, {"AZURE_POD_IDENTITY_AUTHORITY_HOST": "http://localhost:1234//"})