diff --git a/e107_handlers/xml_class.php b/e107_handlers/xml_class.php
index 41580818a..ae2ba61b3 100644
--- a/e107_handlers/xml_class.php
+++ b/e107_handlers/xml_class.php
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 |     GNU General Public License (http://gnu.org).
 |
 |     $Source: /cvs_backup/e107_0.8/e107_handlers/xml_class.php,v $
-|     $Revision: 1.8 $
-|     $Date: 2008-08-25 10:46:33 $
+|     $Revision: 1.9 $
+|     $Date: 2008-12-02 20:14:47 $
 |     $Author: e107steved $
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 */
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class xmlClass
 {
 	var $xmlFileContents;
 	var $filter;					// Optional filter for loaded XML
-									// Set to FALSE if not enabled (default position)
+									// Set to FALSE if not enabled (default on initialisation)
 									// Otherwise mirrors the required subset of the loaded XML - set a field FALSE to accept all 
 									// ...elements lower down the tree. e.g.:
 									// $filter = array(
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ class xmlClass
 									//		'administration' => FALSE,
 									//		'management' => array('install' => FALSE)
 									//		);
+	var $stripComments;				// Set true to strip all mention of comments from the returned array (default); FALSE to return comment markers
 
 
 	// Constructor - set defaults
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ class xmlClass
 	{
 		$this->xmlFileContents = '';
 		$this->filter = FALSE;
+		$this->stripComments = TRUE;		// Don't usually want comments back
 	}
 
 	function getRemoteFile($address, $timeout=10)
@@ -50,8 +52,9 @@ class xmlClass
 		if(function_exists('file_get_contents'))
 		{
 		  $old_timeout = e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $timeout);
-		  $data = file_get_contents(urlencode($address));
-		  e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $old_timeout);
+//		  $data = file_get_contents(urlencode($address));
+		  $data = file_get_contents(htmlspecialchars($address));	// PHP manual says to use urlencode() - but this seems to work better
+		  if ($old_timeout !== FALSE) { e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $old_timeout); }
 		  if ($data)
 		  {
 			return $data;
@@ -60,7 +63,7 @@ class xmlClass
 
 		if(function_exists("curl_init"))
 		{
-			$cu = curl_init ();
+			$cu = curl_init();
 			curl_setopt($cu, CURLOPT_URL, $address);
 			curl_setopt($cu, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
 			curl_setopt ($cu, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
@@ -68,30 +71,30 @@ class xmlClass
 			$this->xmlFileContents = curl_exec($cu);
 			if (curl_error($cu))
 			{
-				$this -> error =  "Error: ".curl_errno($cu).", ".curl_error($cu);
+				$this -> error =  "Curl error: ".curl_errno($cu).", ".curl_error($cu);
 				return FALSE;
 			}
-			curl_close ($cu);
+			curl_close($cu);
 			return $this->xmlFileContents;
 		}
 
 		if(ini_get("allow_url_fopen"))
 		{
-		  $old_timeout = e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $timeout);
-		  $remote = @fopen ($address, "r");
-		  e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $old_timeout);
-		  if(!$remote)
-		  {
-			$this -> error = "Unable to open remote XML file.";
-			return FALSE;
-		  }
+			$old_timeout = e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $timeout);
+			$remote = @fopen($address, "r");
+			if(!$remote)
+			{
+				$this -> error = "fopen: Unable to open remote XML file.";
+				return FALSE;
+			}
 		}
 		else
 		{
+		  $old_timeout = $timeout;
 		  $tmp = parse_url($address);
 		  if(!$remote = fsockopen ($tmp['host'], 80 ,$errno, $errstr, $timeout))
 		  {
-			$this -> error = "Unable to open remote XML file.";
+			$this -> error = "Sockets: Unable to open remote XML file.";
 			return FALSE;
 		  }
 		  else
@@ -107,6 +110,10 @@ class xmlClass
 			$this->xmlFileContents .= fgets ($remote, 4096);
 		}
 		fclose ($remote);
+		if ($old_timeout != $timeout)
+		{
+			if ($old_timeout !== FALSE) { e107_ini_set('default_socket_timeout', $old_timeout); }
+		}
 		return $this->xmlFileContents;
 	}
 
@@ -128,16 +135,21 @@ class xmlClass
 		{
 			$xml = (array)$xml;
 		}
-		$xml = $this->xml_convert_to_array($xml, $this->filter);
+		$xml = $this->xml_convert_to_array($xml, $this->filter, $this->stripComments);
 		return $xml;
 	}
 
-	function xml_convert_to_array($xml, $localFilter = FALSE)
+	function xml_convert_to_array($xml, $localFilter = FALSE, $stripComments = TRUE)
 	{
 		if(is_array($xml))
 		{
 			foreach($xml as $k => $v)
 			{
+				if ($stripComments && ($k === 'comment'))
+				{
+					unset($xml[$k]);
+					continue;
+				}
 				$enabled = FALSE;
 				if ($localFilter === FALSE)
 				{
@@ -155,7 +167,7 @@ class xmlClass
 					{
 						$v = (array)$v;
 					}
-					$xml[$k] = $this->xml_convert_to_array($v, $onFilter);
+					$xml[$k] = $this->xml_convert_to_array($v, $onFilter, $stripComments);
 				}
 				else
 				{