diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 0dc02b9..c9a6e89 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -101,23 +101,30 @@ download() {
     local tmpfile
     tmpfile="$(mktemp)"
 
+    local http_code
     if [[ "${DOWNLOADER}" == curl* ]]; then
-        curl -sSL "${src_url}" -o "${tmpfile}"
+        http_code=$(curl -sSL -o "${tmpfile}" -w "%{http_code}" "${src_url}")
     else
-        wget -q -O "${tmpfile}" "${src_url}"
+        wget -q -O "${tmpfile}" "${src_url}" || {
+            rm -f "${tmpfile}"
+            error "Failed to download from ${src_url}"
+            return 1
+        }
+        # wget doesn't expose the HTTP code; assume success if no error
+        http_code="200"
     fi
 
-    # Check that the downloaded content is non-empty and not an HTML error page
-    if [[ ! -s "${tmpfile}" ]]; then
+    # Check HTTP status code (curl: exact; wget: best-effort via content)
+    if [[ "${DOWNLOADER}" == curl* ]] && [[ "${http_code}" != "200" ]]; then
         rm -f "${tmpfile}"
-        error "Downloaded empty file from ${src_url}"
+        error "Server returned HTTP ${http_code} for ${src_url}"
         return 1
     fi
 
-    # Gitea returns HTML on 404; detect by checking first bytes
-    if head -c 100 "${tmpfile}" | grep -qi "<html\|<!DOCTYPE"; then
+    # Check that the downloaded content is non-empty
+    if [[ ! -s "${tmpfile}" ]]; then
         rm -f "${tmpfile}"
-        error "File not found at ${src_url}"
+        error "Downloaded empty file from ${src_url}"
         return 1
     fi