diff --git a/urlgrabber/grabber.py b/urlgrabber/grabber.py
index cf51dff..3758799 100644
--- a/urlgrabber/grabber.py
+++ b/urlgrabber/grabber.py
@@ -402,6 +402,7 @@ import urllib
 import urllib2
 import mimetools
 import thread
+import types
 from stat import *  # S_* and ST_*
 import pycurl
 from ftplib import parse150
@@ -1219,7 +1220,7 @@ class URLGrabberFileObject:
         self.append = 0
         reget_length = 0
         rt = None
-        if have_range and self.opts.reget and type(self.filename) == type(''):
+        if have_range and self.opts.reget and type(self.filename) in types.StringTypes:
             # we have reget turned on and we're dumping to a file
             try:
                 s = os.stat(self.filename)
@@ -1450,6 +1451,7 @@ class PyCurlFileObject():
         self.scheme = urlparse.urlsplit(self.url)[0]
         self.filename = filename
         self.append = False
+        self.reget_time = None
         self.opts = opts
         self._complete = False
         self.reget_time = None
@@ -1528,11 +1530,12 @@ class PyCurlFileObject():
 
 
         # defaults we're always going to set
-        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.NOPROGRESS, 0)
+        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.NOPROGRESS, False)
         self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.WRITEFUNCTION, self._retrieve)
         self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.HEADERFUNCTION, self._hdr_retrieve)
         self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.PROGRESSFUNCTION, self._progress_update)
-        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.FAILONERROR, 1)
+        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.FAILONERROR, True)
+        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.OPT_FILETIME, True)
         
         if DEBUG:
             self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.VERBOSE, True)
@@ -1540,15 +1543,15 @@ class PyCurlFileObject():
             self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.USERAGENT, opts.user_agent)
         
         # maybe to be options later
-        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.FOLLOWLOCATION, 1)
+        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.FOLLOWLOCATION, True)
         self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.MAXREDIRS, 5)
-        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.CONNECTTIMEOUT, 30)
         
         # timeouts
         timeout = 300
         if opts.timeout:
             timeout = int(opts.timeout)
-        self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.TIMEOUT, timeout)
+            self.curl_obj.setopt(pycurl.CONNECTTIMEOUT, timeout)
+
         # ssl options
         if self.scheme == 'https':
             if opts.ssl_ca_cert: # this may do ZERO with nss  according to curl docs
@@ -1607,18 +1610,21 @@ class PyCurlFileObject():
             # to other URLGrabErrors from 
             # http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/libcurl-errors.html
             # this covers e.args[0] == 22 pretty well - which will be common
+            if e.args[0] == 28:
+                err = URLGrabError(12, _('Timeout on %s: %s') % (self.url, e))
+                err.url = self.url
+                raise err
+            code = self.http_code                
             if str(e.args[1]) == '': # fake it until you make it
                 msg = 'HTTP Error %s : %s ' % (self.http_code, self.url)
             else:
                 msg = str(e.args[1])
             err = URLGrabError(14, msg)
-            err.code = self.http_code
+            err.code = code
             err.exception = e
             raise err
             
     def _do_open(self):
-        self.append = False
-        self.reget_time = None
         self.curl_obj = _curl_cache
         self.curl_obj.reset() # reset all old settings away, just in case
         # setup any ranges
@@ -1630,11 +1636,9 @@ class PyCurlFileObject():
         pass
         
     def _build_range(self):
-        self.reget_time = None
-        self.append = False
         reget_length = 0
         rt = None
-        if self.opts.reget and type(self.filename) == type(''):
+        if self.opts.reget and type(self.filename) in types.StringTypes:
             # we have reget turned on and we're dumping to a file
             try:
                 s = os.stat(self.filename)
@@ -1729,7 +1733,7 @@ class PyCurlFileObject():
         if self.filename:
             self._prog_reportname = str(self.filename)
             self._prog_basename = os.path.basename(self.filename)
-
+            
             if self.append: mode = 'ab'
             else: mode = 'wb'