diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 91909a4a..b4ae384c 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -64,6 +64,10 @@ if(!extension_loaded('openssl'))
 if(!extension_loaded('libxml'))
 	die('"libxml" extension not loaded. Please check "php.ini"');
 
+// configuration checks
+if(ini_get('allow_url_fopen') !== "1")
+	die('"allow_url_fopen" is not set to "1". Please check "php.ini');
+
 // FIXME : beta test UA spoofing, please report any blacklisting by PHP-fopen-unfriendly websites
 ini_set('user_agent', 'Mozilla/5.0(X11; Linux x86_64; rv:30.0)
  Gecko/20121202 Firefox/30.0(rss-bridge/0.1;