diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 4dfe51c4..148b8d4d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ ver. 0.7.4 (2006/09/28) - beta
 - Improved configuration files. Thanks to Yaroslav Halchenko
 - Added man page for "fail2ban-regex"
 - Moved ban/unban messages from "info" level to "warn"
-- Added "-s" option to specify the socket path
+- Added "-s" option to specify the socket path and "socket"
+  option in "fail2ban.conf"
 
 ver. 0.7.3 (2006/09/28) - beta
 ----------
diff --git a/client/configurator.py b/client/configurator.py
index 4802dd52..b59f5192 100644
--- a/client/configurator.py
+++ b/client/configurator.py
@@ -46,9 +46,15 @@ class Configurator:
 	def getBaseDir(self):
 		return ConfigReader.getBaseDir()
 	
-	def readAll(self):
+	def readEarly(self):
 		self.__fail2ban.read()
+	
+	def readAll(self):
+		self.readEarly()
 		self.__jails.read()
+		
+	def getEarlyOptions(self):
+		return self.__fail2ban.getEarlyOptions()
 	
 	def getAllOptions(self):
 		self.__settings["general"] = self.__fail2ban.getOptions()
diff --git a/client/fail2banreader.py b/client/fail2banreader.py
index e8242cf4..99bc522e 100644
--- a/client/fail2banreader.py
+++ b/client/fail2banreader.py
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ class Fail2banReader(ConfigReader):
 	def read(self):
 		ConfigReader.read(self, "fail2ban")
 	
+	def getEarlyOptions(self):
+		opts = [["string", "socket", "/tmp/fail2ban.sock"]]
+		return ConfigReader.getOptions(self, "Definition", opts)
+	
 	def getOptions(self):
 		opts = [["int", "loglevel", 1],
 				["string", "logtarget", "STDERR"]]
diff --git a/fail2ban-client b/fail2ban-client
index fdb6da39..fd88d6e1 100755
--- a/fail2ban-client
+++ b/fail2ban-client
@@ -52,13 +52,14 @@ class Fail2banClient:
 	def __init__(self):
 		self.__argv = None
 		self.__stream = None
+		self.__configurator = Configurator()
 		self.__conf = dict()
 		self.__conf["conf"] = "/etc/fail2ban"
 		self.__conf["dump"] = False
 		self.__conf["force"] = False
 		self.__conf["verbose"] = 2
 		self.__conf["interactive"] = False
-		self.__conf["socket"] = "/tmp/fail2ban.sock"
+		self.__conf["socket"] = None
 		
 	def dispVersion(self):
 		print "Fail2Ban v" + version
@@ -273,6 +274,16 @@ class Fail2banClient:
 		stdout.setFormatter(formatter)
 		logSys.addHandler(stdout)
 
+		# Set the configuration path
+		self.__configurator.setBaseDir(self.__conf["conf"])
+		
+		# Set socket path
+		self.__configurator.readEarly()
+		socket = self.__configurator.getEarlyOptions()
+		if self.__conf["socket"] == None:
+			self.__conf["socket"] = socket["socket"]
+		logSys.warn("Using socket file " + self.__conf["socket"])
+
 		if self.__conf["dump"]:
 			self.__readConfig()
 			self.dumpConfig(self.__stream)
@@ -306,12 +317,10 @@ class Fail2banClient:
 
 	def __readConfig(self):
 		# Read the configuration
-		cfg = Configurator()
-		cfg.setBaseDir(self.__conf["conf"])
-		cfg.readAll()
-		cfg.getAllOptions()
-		cfg.convertToProtocol()
-		self.__stream = cfg.getConfigStream()
+		self.__configurator.readAll()
+		self.__configurator.getAllOptions()
+		self.__configurator.convertToProtocol()
+		self.__stream = self.__configurator.getConfigStream()
 	
 	@staticmethod
 	def dumpConfig(cmd):