diff --git a/program/include/main.inc b/program/include/main.inc
index 1e25dd6d1..61a9c9cd1 100644
--- a/program/include/main.inc
+++ b/program/include/main.inc
@@ -562,7 +562,7 @@ function rcmail_login($user, $pass, $host=NULL)
   if ($a_host['host'])
     {
     $host = $a_host['host'];
-    $imap_ssl = (isset($a_host['scheme']) && in_array($a_host['scheme'], array('ssl','imaps','tls'))) ? TRUE : FALSE;
+    $imap_ssl = (isset($a_host['scheme']) && in_array($a_host['scheme'], array('ssl','imaps','tls'))) ? $a_host['scheme'] : null;
     $imap_port = isset($a_host['port']) ? $a_host['port'] : ($imap_ssl ? 993 : $CONFIG['default_port']);
     }
   else
diff --git a/program/include/rcube_imap.inc b/program/include/rcube_imap.inc
index 1f94adcd1..f7584041a 100644
--- a/program/include/rcube_imap.inc
+++ b/program/include/rcube_imap.inc
@@ -97,17 +97,17 @@ class rcube_imap
    * @param  string   Username for IMAP account
    * @param  string   Password for IMAP account
    * @param  number   Port to connect to
-   * @param  boolean  Use SSL connection
+   * @param  string   SSL schema (either ssl or tls) or null if plain connection
    * @return boolean  TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
    * @access public
    */
-  function connect($host, $user, $pass, $port=143, $use_ssl=FALSE)
+  function connect($host, $user, $pass, $port=143, $use_ssl=null)
     {
     global $ICL_SSL, $ICL_PORT, $IMAP_USE_INTERNAL_DATE;
     
     // check for Open-SSL support in PHP build
     if ($use_ssl && in_array('openssl', get_loaded_extensions()))
-      $ICL_SSL = TRUE;
+      $ICL_SSL = $use_ssl == 'imaps' ? 'ssl' : $use_ssl;
     else if ($use_ssl)
       {
       raise_error(array('code' => 403, 'type' => 'imap', 'file' => __FILE__,
diff --git a/program/lib/imap.inc b/program/lib/imap.inc
index 11ab370d9..a2a63d92e 100644
--- a/program/lib/imap.inc
+++ b/program/lib/imap.inc
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
 		- Sanity check of $message_set in iil_C_FetchHeaders(), iil_C_FetchHeaderIndex(), iil_C_FetchThreadHeaders()
 		- Implemented UID FETCH in iil_C_FetchHeaders()
 		- Abort do-loop on socket errors (fgets returns false)
+		- $ICL_SSL is not boolean anymore but contains the connection schema (ssl or tls)
 		- Removed some debuggers (echo ...)
 
 ********************************************************/
@@ -455,7 +456,7 @@ function iil_Connect($host, $user, $password) {
     
 	//check for SSL
 	if ($ICL_SSL) {
-		$host = "ssl://".$host;
+		$host = $ICL_SSL."://".$host;
 	}
 	
 	//open socket connection