diff --git a/puppet.spec b/puppet.spec
index 38e92c1..fed9e16 100644
--- a/puppet.spec
+++ b/puppet.spec
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 
 Name:           puppet
 Version:        3.0.2
-Release:        1%{?dist}
+Release:        2%{?dist}
 Summary:        A network tool for managing many disparate systems
 License:        ASL 2.0
 URL:            http://puppetlabs.com
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ Source0:        http://downloads.puppetlabs.com/%{name}/%{name}-%{version}.tar.g
 Source1:        http://downloads.puppetlabs.com/%{name}/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz.asc
 Source2:        puppet-nm-dispatcher
 
+Patch0:         puppetmaster-old-client-compat.patch
+
 Group:          System Environment/Base
 
 BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)
@@ -103,6 +105,7 @@ The server can also function as a certificate authority and file server.
 
 %prep
 %setup -q
+%patch0 -p1
 patch -s -p1 < %{confdir}/rundir-perms.patch
 
 # Fix some rpmlint complaints
@@ -349,6 +352,9 @@ fi
 rm -rf %{buildroot}
 
 %changelog
+* Thu Mar  7 2013 Daniel Drake <dsd@laptop.org> - 3.0.2-2
+- Improve server compatibility with old puppet clients (#831303)
+
 * Tue Oct 30 2012 Moses Mendoza <moses@puppetlabs.com> - 3.0.2-1
 - Update to 3.0.2
 - Update new dependencies (ruby >= 1.8.7, facter >= 1.6.6, hiera >= 1.0.0)
diff --git a/puppetmaster-old-client-compat.patch b/puppetmaster-old-client-compat.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95323a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/puppetmaster-old-client-compat.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+From ec462b7b974fc34110437010f862780fb2ee39a3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Daniel Drake <dsd@laptop.org>
+Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:05:10 -0600
+Subject: [PATCH] (#18781) Be more tolerant of old clients in WEBrick server
+
+In #18781 and #6117 there are cases of relatively simplistic puppet
+setups failing between old versions of the puppet client (which
+always use HTTP GET) and new versions of the puppet WEBrick server
+(which has a relatively low limit on the size of a valid GET: 2083
+bytes).
+
+While there are other non-WEBrick server options available, WEBrick
+has the advantage of simplicity, so it would be nice to keep it working.
+
+Here we patch the WEBrick constant which specifies the maximum size of
+a HTTP GET request, increasing it to a value that should work for common
+setups.
+---
+ lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb |    9 +++++++++
+ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)
+
+Index: puppet-3.0.2/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb
+===================================================================
+--- puppet-3.0.2.orig/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb
++++ puppet-3.0.2/lib/puppet/util/monkey_patches.rb
+@@ -310,3 +310,13 @@ if RUBY_VERSION == '1.8.5'
+     module_function :move
+   end
+ end
++
++# Old puppet clients may make large GET requests, lets be reasonably tolerant
++# in our default WEBrick server.
++require 'webrick'
++if defined?(WEBrick::HTTPRequest::MAX_URI_LENGTH) and WEBrick::HTTPRequest::MAX_URI_LENGTH < 8192
++  # Silence ruby warning: already initialized constant MAX_URI_LENGTH
++  v, $VERBOSE = $VERBOSE, nil
++  WEBrick::HTTPRequest.const_set("MAX_URI_LENGTH", 8192)
++  $VERBOSE = v
++end