diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b93678674..a3dd9f3b9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 node_modules
 settings.json
+!settings.json.template
 APIKEY.txt
 bin/abiword.exe
 bin/node.exe
diff --git a/settings.json.template b/settings.json.template
index f6f3e5b85..e37bc4509 100644
--- a/settings.json.template
+++ b/settings.json.template
@@ -91,5 +91,8 @@
   */
 
   /* The log level we are using, can be: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR */
-  "loglevel": "INFO"
+  "loglevel": "INFO",
+
+  // restrict socket.io transport methods
+  "socketTransportProtocols" : ['xhr-polling', 'jsonp-polling', 'htmlfile']
 }
diff --git a/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js b/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js
index c2b9ff6c7..524bab3d9 100644
--- a/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js
+++ b/src/node/hooks/express/socketio.js
@@ -36,10 +36,10 @@ exports.expressCreateServer = function (hook_name, args, cb) {
     });
   });
 
-  // there shouldn#t be a browser that isn't compatible to all 
+  // there shouldn't be a browser that isn't compatible to all 
   // transports in this list at once
   // e.g. XHR is disabled in IE by default, so in IE it should use jsonp-polling
-  io.set('transports', ['xhr-polling', 'jsonp-polling', 'htmlfile']);
+  io.set('transports', settings.socketTransportProtocols );
 
   var socketIOLogger = log4js.getLogger("socket.io");
   io.set('logger', {
diff --git a/src/node/utils/Settings.js b/src/node/utils/Settings.js
index fb2a592cb..bed5a9a07 100644
--- a/src/node/utils/Settings.js
+++ b/src/node/utils/Settings.js
@@ -57,6 +57,11 @@ exports.port = process.env.PORT || 9001;
  */
 exports.ssl = false;
 
+/**
+ * socket.io transport methods
+ **/
+exports.socketTransportProtocols = ['xhr-polling', 'jsonp-polling', 'htmlfile'];
+
 /*
  * The Type of the database
  */