diff --git a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Essentials.java b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Essentials.java
index 56693632e..b74b2b5c4 100644
--- a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Essentials.java
+++ b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Essentials.java
@@ -209,10 +209,10 @@ public class Essentials extends JavaPlugin implements IEssentials
 		final EssentialsTimer timer = new EssentialsTimer(this);
 		getScheduler().scheduleSyncRepeatingTask(this, timer, 1, 50);
 		Economy.setEss(this);
-		if (enableErrorLogging)
+		if (getSettings().isUpdateEnabled())
 		{
 			updateTimer = new EssentialsUpdateTimer(this);
-			getScheduler().scheduleAsyncRepeatingTask(this, updateTimer, 50, 50 * 60 * (this.getDescription().getVersion().startsWith("Dev") ? 60 : 360));
+			getScheduler().scheduleAsyncRepeatingTask(this, updateTimer, 20 * 60, 20 * 3600 * 6);
 		}
 		LOGGER.info(Util.format("loadinfo", this.getDescription().getName(), this.getDescription().getVersion(), Util.joinList(this.getDescription().getAuthors())));
 	}
diff --git a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/EssentialsUpdateTimer.java b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/EssentialsUpdateTimer.java
index f00f644cd..6f7579d4e 100644
--- a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/EssentialsUpdateTimer.java
+++ b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/EssentialsUpdateTimer.java
@@ -4,65 +4,81 @@ import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
-import java.math.BigInteger;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.URLConnection;
 import java.net.URLEncoder;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+import org.bukkit.entity.Player;
 
 
 class EssentialsUpdateTimer implements Runnable
 {
-	private URL url;
-	private final Essentials ess;
-	private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("Minecraft");
-	
-	public EssentialsUpdateTimer(Essentials ess)
+	private transient URL url;
+	private final transient IEssentials ess;
+	private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger("Minecraft");
+	private final transient Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("git-Bukkit-([0-9]+).([0-9]+).([0-9]+)-[0-9]+-[0-9a-z]+-b([0-9]+)jnks.*");
+
+	public EssentialsUpdateTimer(final IEssentials ess)
 	{
 		this.ess = ess;
 		try
 		{
-			url = new URL("http://127.0.0.1:8080/check");
+			url = new URL("http://essentialsupdate.appspot.com/check");
 		}
 		catch (MalformedURLException ex)
 		{
-			logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Invalid url!", ex);
+			LOGGER.log(Level.SEVERE, "Invalid url!", ex);
 		}
 	}
 
+	@Override
 	public void run()
 	{
 		try
 		{
-			StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
-			sb.append("v=").append(URLEncoder.encode(ess.getDescription().getVersion(),"UTF-8"));
-			sb.append("&b=").append(URLEncoder.encode(ess.getServer().getVersion(),"UTF-8"));
-			sb.append("&jv=").append(URLEncoder.encode(System.getProperty("java.version"),"UTF-8"));
-			sb.append("&l=").append(URLEncoder.encode(Util.getCurrentLocale().toString(),"UTF-8"));
-			sb.append("&on=").append(URLEncoder.encode(System.getProperty("os.name"),"UTF-8"));
-			sb.append("&ov=").append(URLEncoder.encode(System.getProperty("os.version"),"UTF-8"));
-			for (BigInteger bigInteger : ess.getErrors().keySet())
+			final StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
+			String bukkitVersion = ess.getServer().getVersion();
+			final Matcher versionMatch = pattern.matcher(bukkitVersion);
+			if (versionMatch.matches())
 			{
-				sb.append("&e[]=").append(bigInteger.toString(36));
+				bukkitVersion = versionMatch.group(4);
 			}
-			URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
+			builder.append("v=").append(URLEncoder.encode(ess.getDescription().getVersion(), "UTF-8"));
+			builder.append("&b=").append(URLEncoder.encode(bukkitVersion, "UTF-8"));
+			final URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
 			conn.setConnectTimeout(10000);
 			conn.setDoOutput(true);
 			conn.connect();
-			OutputStreamWriter wr = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
-			wr.write(sb.toString());
-			wr.flush();
-			BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
-			String ret = br.readLine();
-			wr.close();
-			br.close();
-			logger.log(Level.INFO, ret);
+			final OutputStreamWriter writer = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
+			writer.write(builder.toString());
+			writer.flush();
+			final BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
+			final String ret = reader.readLine();
+			writer.close();
+			reader.close();
+			if (!ret.isEmpty() && !ret.equalsIgnoreCase("OK"))
+			{
+				LOGGER.log(Level.INFO, "Essentials Update-Check: " + ret);
+				if (ret.startsWith("New Version"))
+				{
+					for (Player player : ess.getServer().getOnlinePlayers())
+					{
+						final User user = ess.getUser(player);
+						if (user.isAuthorized("essentials.admin.notices.update"))
+						{
+							user.sendMessage(ret);
+						}
+					}
+				}
+			}
 		}
 		catch (IOException ex)
 		{
-			logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Failed to open connection", ex);
+			LOGGER.log(Level.SEVERE, "Failed to open connection", ex);
 		}
-	}	
+	}
 }
diff --git a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/ISettings.java b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/ISettings.java
index 13717f469..566218e95 100644
--- a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/ISettings.java
+++ b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/ISettings.java
@@ -129,7 +129,9 @@ public interface ISettings extends IConf
 
 	boolean isPlayerCommand(String string);
 
-	public boolean useBukkitPermissions();
+	boolean useBukkitPermissions();
 
-	public boolean addPrefixSuffix();
+	boolean addPrefixSuffix();
+
+	boolean isUpdateEnabled();
 }
diff --git a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Settings.java b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Settings.java
index 1700dec3a..b6e1f3758 100644
--- a/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Settings.java
+++ b/Essentials/src/com/earth2me/essentials/Settings.java
@@ -473,4 +473,10 @@ public class Settings implements ISettings
 	{
 		return config.getBoolean("add-prefix-suffix", ess.getServer().getPluginManager().isPluginEnabled("EssentialsChat"));
 	}
+
+	@Override
+	public boolean isUpdateEnabled()
+	{
+		return config.getBoolean("update-check", true);
+	}
 }
diff --git a/Essentials/src/config.yml b/Essentials/src/config.yml
index 5e3f581b8..1c9d73f5f 100644
--- a/Essentials/src/config.yml
+++ b/Essentials/src/config.yml
@@ -230,6 +230,9 @@ remove-god-on-disconnect: false
 # This only works if no other permission plugins are installed
 use-bukkit-permissions: false
 
+# Check for updates
+update-check: true
+
 ############################################################
 # +------------------------------------------------------+ #
 # |                   EssentialsHome                     | #