diff --git a/settings.json.template b/settings.json.template
index 6c0ebd385..3ae0a9815 100644
--- a/settings.json.template
+++ b/settings.json.template
@@ -39,9 +39,9 @@
      but makes it impossible to debug the javascript/css */
   "minify" : true,
 
-  /* How long may clients use served javascript code? Without versioning this
-    is may cause problems during deployment. */
-  "maxAge" : 21600000, // 6 hours
+  /* How long may clients use served javascript code (in seconds)? Without versioning this
+    is may cause problems during deployment. Set to 0 to disable caching */
+  "maxAge" : 21600, // 6 hours
   
   /* This is the path to the Abiword executable. Setting it to null, disables abiword.
      Abiword is needed to enable the import/export of pads*/  
diff --git a/src/node/server.js b/src/node/server.js
index 19df6e728..8e6d6fa0b 100644
--- a/src/node/server.js
+++ b/src/node/server.js
@@ -51,8 +51,9 @@ console.log("Report bugs at https://github.com/Pita/etherpad-lite/issues")
 
 var serverName = "Etherpad-Lite " + version + " (http://j.mp/ep-lite)";
 
-//cache 6 hours
-exports.maxAge = 1000*60*60*6;
+//cache 6 hours, by default
+var hour = 60*60;
+exports.maxAge = settings.maxAge || 6 * hour;
 
 //set loglevel
 log4js.setGlobalLogLevel(settings.loglevel);