diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index a276d6edd6..ed251e9b95 100755
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -2557,3 +2557,7 @@ David   Dec 5 2002
     tools/
         backend_lib.C,h
         create_work.C
+
+David  Dec 6 2002
+    - fix bugs in get_local_ip_addr()
+        (need to figure out why they were happening)
diff --git a/client/hostinfo.C b/client/hostinfo.C
index 4ac8091ed5..128638ba06 100644
--- a/client/hostinfo.C
+++ b/client/hostinfo.C
@@ -170,10 +170,15 @@ int get_local_ip_addr_str(char* p) {
 #if HAVE_NETDB_H || _WIN32
     char buf[256];
     struct in_addr addr;
-    if (gethostname(buf, 256))
+    if (gethostname(buf, 256)) {
+        printf("gethostname() didn't return name\n");
         return -1;
+    }
     struct hostent* he = gethostbyname(buf);
-    if (!he) return -1;
+    if (!he || !he->h_addr_list[0]) {
+        printf("gethostbyname() didn't return any IP addresses\n");
+        return -1;
+    }
     memcpy(&addr, he->h_addr_list[0], sizeof(addr));
     strcpy(p, inet_ntoa(addr));
 #endif
diff --git a/todo b/todo
index 09db044752..9a14005e2b 100755
--- a/todo
+++ b/todo
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+support for HTTP and SOCKS proxies
+make get_local_ip_addr() work in all cases
 est_time_to_completion doesn't work for non-running tasks
 get timezone working on all platforms
 get benchmark working as separate process