diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e0ab5b00..737cbe1f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ The library will remain open source and MIT licensed and can still be used, fork
 
 ##### Changes in 4.3.1 (not released yet):
    - Provide classloader to ServiceLoader in TransportBuilder (for loading actual transports) and AbstractTransport (for loading IMessageReader/Writer implementations), thanks to [cthbleachbit](https://github.com/cthbleachbit) ([#210](https://github.com/hypfvieh/dbus-java/issues/210), [PR#211](https://github.com/hypfvieh/dbus-java/issues/211))
+   - Added missing `connect()` method to `AbstractTransport` to allow connecting the underlying transport manually, thanks to [brett-smith](https://github.com/brett-smith) ([#212](https://github.com/hypfvieh/dbus-java/issues/212)
+
 
 ##### Changes in 4.3.0 (2023-03-10):
 
diff --git a/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/AbstractConnection.java b/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/AbstractConnection.java
index fa080bb2..347c3ab9 100644
--- a/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/AbstractConnection.java
+++ b/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/AbstractConnection.java
@@ -1192,6 +1192,26 @@ public boolean isConnected() {
         return transport != null && transport.isConnected();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Connects the underlying transport if it is not already connected.
+     * <p>
+     * Will work for both, client and server (listening) connections.
+     * </p>
+     *
+     * @return true if connection established or already connected, false otherwise
+     * @throws IOException when connection was not already established and creating the connnection failed
+     */
+    public boolean connect() throws IOException {
+        if (!transport.isConnected()) {
+            if (transport.isListening()) {
+                return transport.listen() != null;
+            } else {
+                return transport.connect() != null;
+            }
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
+
     protected Queue<Error> getPendingErrorQueue() {
         return pendingErrorQueue;
     }
diff --git a/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/transports/AbstractTransport.java b/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/transports/AbstractTransport.java
index 6053c305..b718c454 100644
--- a/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/transports/AbstractTransport.java
+++ b/dbus-java-core/src/main/java/org/freedesktop/dbus/connections/transports/AbstractTransport.java
@@ -134,6 +134,15 @@ public final SocketChannel connect() throws IOException {
         return transportConnection.getChannel();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * True if this transport connection is a listening (server) connection.
+     *
+     * @return boolean
+     */
+    public final boolean isListening() {
+        return getAddress().isListeningSocket();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Start listening on created transport.<br>
      * <p>
@@ -145,7 +154,8 @@ public final SocketChannel connect() throws IOException {
      * Therefore this method should be called in a loop to accept multiple clients
      * </p>
      *
-     * @return {@link TransportConnection} containing created {@link SocketChannel} and {@link IMessageReader}/{@link IMessageWriter}
+     * @return {@link TransportConnection} containing created {@link SocketChannel} and
+     *         {@link IMessageReader}/{@link IMessageWriter}
      * @throws IOException if connection fails
      */
     public final TransportConnection listen() throws IOException {