diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 96d2e277..c768bff7 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ RUN easy-add --var os=${TARGETOS} --var arch=${TARGETARCH}${TARGETVARIANT} \
   --var version=1.9.0 --var app=mc-server-runner --file {{.app}} \
   --from https://github.com/itzg/{{.app}}/releases/download/{{.version}}/{{.app}}_{{.version}}_{{.os}}_{{.arch}}.tar.gz
 
-ARG MC_HELPER_VERSION=1.34.6
+ARG MC_HELPER_VERSION=1.34.7
 ARG MC_HELPER_BASE_URL=https://github.com/itzg/mc-image-helper/releases/download/${MC_HELPER_VERSION}
 # used for cache busting local copy of mc-image-helper
 ARG MC_HELPER_REV=1
diff --git a/docs/misc/healthcheck.md b/docs/misc/healthcheck.md
index 008104ab..920d5d52 100644
--- a/docs/misc/healthcheck.md
+++ b/docs/misc/healthcheck.md
@@ -25,3 +25,8 @@ healthcheck:
 ```
 
 Some orchestration systems, such as Portainer, don't allow for disabling the default `HEALTHCHECK` declared by this image. In those cases you can approximate the disabling of healthchecks by setting the environment variable `DISABLE_HEALTHCHECK` to `true`.
+
+### Healthchecks for older versions
+
+This container disables Healthchecks for Versions before b1.8 as those versions do not support any kind of server pinging.
+For more information see [Server List Ping](https://wiki.vg/Server_List_Ping#Beta_1.8_to_1.3)
diff --git a/docs/versions/minecraft.md b/docs/versions/minecraft.md
index 4eeabd18..6f754b52 100644
--- a/docs/versions/minecraft.md
+++ b/docs/versions/minecraft.md
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@ To use a different Minecraft version, pass the `VERSION` environment variable (c
 
 - LATEST (the default)
 - SNAPSHOT
-- or a specific version, such as "1.7.9"
+- a specific version, such as "1.7.9"
+- or an alpha and beta version, such as "b1.7.3" (server download might not exist)
 
 For example, to use the latest snapshot:
 
diff --git a/scripts/start-finalExec b/scripts/start-finalExec
index 34d69baf..7445dbc0 100755
--- a/scripts/start-finalExec
+++ b/scripts/start-finalExec
@@ -221,7 +221,11 @@ function copyFilesForCurseForge() {
   cp -f /data/eula.txt "${FTB_DIR}/"
 }
 
-if versionLessThan 1.7; then
+if versionLessThan 'b1.8'; then
+  echo "
+DISABLE_HEALTHCHECK=true
+  " > /data/.mc-health.env
+elif versionLessThan 1.7; then
   echo "
 MC_HEALTH_EXTRA_ARGS=(
   --use-server-list-ping