diff --git a/httpretrieve.r2py b/httpretrieve.r2py
index 4bf3c4d..d13cc2f 100644
--- a/httpretrieve.r2py
+++ b/httpretrieve.r2py
@@ -16,14 +16,13 @@
 """
 
 
-
+librepysocket = dy_import_module("librepysocket.r2py")
 urlparse = dy_import_module('urlparse.r2py')
-sockettimeout = dy_import_module('sockettimeout.r2py')
 urllib = dy_import_module('urllib.r2py')
 
 
 
-class HttpConnectionError(Exception):
+class HttpConnectionError(RepyException):
   """
   Error indicating that the web server has unexpectedly dropped the
   connection.
@@ -32,7 +31,7 @@ class HttpConnectionError(Exception):
 
 
 
-class HttpBrokenServerError(Exception):
+class HttpBrokenServerError(RepyException):
   """
   Error indicating that the web server has sent us complete garbage instead
   of something resembling HTTP.
@@ -63,19 +62,22 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
            both postdata and querydata are omitted, there is no query
            string sent in the request.
 
-           For both querydata and postdata, strings are sent *unmodified*.
-           This means you probably should encode them first, with
-           urllib_quote().
+           Per default, we use
+               `Content-Encoding: application/x-www-form-urlencoded`
+           for querydata and postdata. However, we do not MIME-encode the 
+           data; the caller must take care of that (using `urllib_quote`).
+           If you encode querydata/postdata differently, also supply a 
+           `httpheaders` dict, with the key `Content-Encoding` mapping to 
+           the MIME type you use.
     httpheaders (optional):
            A dictionary of supplemental HTTP request headers to add to the
            request.
     proxy (optional):
            A proxy server 2-tuple to bind to: ('host', port).       
     timeout (optional):
-           A timeout for establishing a connection to the web server,
-           sending headers, and reading the response headers.
-
-           If excluded or None, never times out.
+           A timeout for establishing a connection to the web server.
+           Sending headers, and reading the response headers is not 
+           subject to timing out at the moment.
 
   <Exceptions>
     ValueError if given an invalid URL, or malformed limit or timeout
@@ -127,21 +129,16 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
   try:
     if proxy is not None:
       # if there is a proxy, open a connection with the proxy instead of the actual server
-      # use the timeout we are given (or none)
-      sockobj = sockettimeout.timeout_openconnection(proxy[0], proxy[1], timeout=timeout)  
+      sockobj = librepysocket.openconn(proxy[0], proxy[1], timeout=timeout)  
     else:
       # if there is no proxy open a connection with server directly
-      # use the timeout we are given (or none)
-      sockobj = sockettimeout.timeout_openconnection(gethostbyname(hoststr), portint, timeout=timeout)
+      sockobj = librepysocket.openconn(gethostbyname(hoststr), portint, timeout=timeout)
 
-  except Exception, e:
+  except TimeoutError:
     # If a socket object was created, we want to clean in up.
     if sockobj:
       sockobj.close()
-
-    if repr(e).startswith("timeout("):
-      raise HttpConnectionError("Socket timed out connecting to host/port.")
-    raise
+    raise HttpConnectionError("Socket timed out connecting to host/port.")
 
   try:
     # Builds the HTTP request:
@@ -154,17 +151,6 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
     # Now, we're done with the HTTP request part of the session, and we need
     # to get the HTTP response.
 
-    # Check if we've timed out (if the user requested a timeout); update the
-    # socket timeout to reflect the time taken sending the request.
-    # XXX I doubt it makes sense to do that. sockettimeout provides 
-    # XXX timeouts for us. Review this, simplify if possible.
-    if timeout is None:
-      sockobj.settimeout(0)
-    elif getruntime() - starttimefloat >= timeout:
-      raise TimeoutError("Timed out")
-    else:
-      sockobj.settimeout(timeout - (getruntime() - starttimefloat))
-
     # Receive the header lines from the web server (a series of CRLF-terminated
     # lines, terminated by an empty line, or by the server closing the
     # connection.
@@ -174,11 +160,10 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
         # This should probably be replaced with page-sized reads in the future,
         # but for now, the behavior is at least correct.
         headersstr += sockobj.recv(1)
-      except Exception, e:
-        if str(e) == "Socket closed":
-          break
-        else:
-          raise
+      except SocketWouldBlockError:
+        sleep(0.01)
+      except SocketClosedRemote:
+        break
 
     httpheaderlist = headersstr.split("\r\n")
     # Ignore (a) trailing blank line(s) (for example, the response header-
@@ -205,7 +190,7 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
     friendlystatusstr = statuslinelist[2]
     try:
       statusint = int(statuslinelist[1])
-    except ValueError, e:
+    except ValueError:
       raise HttpBrokenServerError("Server returned garbage for HTTP " + \
         "response (status code isn't integer).")
 
@@ -219,7 +204,7 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
       sockobj.close()
       try:
         redirecturlstr = httpheaderdict["Location"][0]
-      except (KeyError, IndexError), ke:
+      except (KeyError, IndexError):
         # When a server returns a redirect status code (3xx) but no Location
         # header, some clients, e.g. Firefox, just show the response body
         # as they would normally for a 2xx or 4xx response. So, I think we
@@ -228,7 +213,11 @@ def httpretrieve_open(url, querydata=None, postdata=None,\
         pass
       else:
         # If the server did send a redirect location, let's go there.
-        return httpretrieve_open(redirecturlstr)
+        try:
+          return httpretrieve_open(redirecturlstr)
+        except Exception, e:
+          # XXX Clean this mess up. Let's define an HttpRedirectionError or some such.
+          raise Exception("Error following redirect: " + repr(e))
 
     # If we weren't requested to redirect, and we didn't, return a read-only
     # file-like object (representing the response body) to the caller.
@@ -407,12 +396,11 @@ class _httpretrieve_filelikeobject:
     while True:
       try:
         contentchunkstr = self._sockobj.recv(lefttoread or 4096)
-      except Exception, e:
-        if str(e) == "The socket has been closed remotely!":
-          self._totalcontentisreceived = True
-          break
-        else:
-          raise
+      except SocketWouldBlockError:
+        sleep(0.01)
+      except SocketClosedRemote:
+        self._totalcontentisreceived = True
+        break
       
       httpcontentstr += contentchunkstr
       self._totalread += len(contentchunkstr)
@@ -520,21 +508,27 @@ def _httpretrieve_build_request(host, port, path, querydata, postdata, \
   # Sanity checks:
   if path == "":
     raise ValueError("Invalid path -- empty string.")
-  if postdata is not None and type(postdata) not in (str, dict):
-    raise TypeError("Postdata should be a dict of form-data or a string")
-  if querydata is not None and type(querydata) not in (str, dict):
-    raise TypeError("Querydata should be a dict of form-data or a string")
-  if httpheaders is not None and type(httpheaders) is not dict:
-    raise TypeError("Expected HTTP headers as a dictionary.")
-
-  # Type-conversions:
-  if type(querydata) is dict:
-    querydata = urllib.urllib_quote_parameters(querydata)
-  elif querydata is None:
-    querydata = ""
-
-  if type(postdata) is dict:
-    postdata = urllib.urllib_quote_parameters(postdata)
+  if postdata is not None and type(postdata) is not str:
+    raise TypeError("postdata should be a MIME-encoded string")
+
+  # Initialize querydata if not given, ...
+  querydata = querydata or ""
+
+  # ... and ensure it is a str
+  if type(querydata) is not str:
+    raise TypeError("querydata should be a MIME-encoded string")
+
+  # Initialize the HTTP headers dict if not given, ...
+  httpheaders = httpheaders or {}
+
+  # ... and ensure it is a dict
+  if type(httpheaders) is not dict:
+    raise TypeError("httpheaders must be a dict")
+
+  # If we have query or post data, set a default encoding if not given
+  if querydata or postdata and "Content-Type" not in httpheaders:
+    httpheaders['Content-Type'] = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
+
 
   # Default to GET, unless the caller specifies a message body to send.
   methodstr = "GET"
@@ -554,24 +548,23 @@ def _httpretrieve_build_request(host, port, path, querydata, postdata, \
     # there is no proxy; send normal http request   
     requeststr = methodstr + ' ' + path + resourcestr + ' HTTP/1.0\r\n'
     
-  if httpheaders is not None:
-    # Most servers require a 'Host' header for normal functionality
-    # (especially in the case of multiple domains being hosted on a
-    # single server).
-    if "Host" not in httpheaders:
-      requeststr += "Host: " + host + ':' + str(port) + "\r\n"
+  # Most servers require a 'Host' header for normal functionality
+  # (especially in the case of multiple domains being hosted on a
+  # single server).
+  if "Host" not in httpheaders:
+    requeststr += "Host: " + host + ':' + str(port) + "\r\n"
 
-    for key, val in httpheaders.items():
-      requeststr += key + ": " + val + '\r\n'
+  for key, val in httpheaders.items():
+    requeststr += key + ": " + val + '\r\n'
 
-  # Affix post-data related headers and content:
+  # Add post-data related headers and content:
   if methodstr == "POST":
     requeststr += 'Content-Length: ' + str(len(postdata)) + '\r\n'
 
   # The empty line terminates HTTP headers.
   requeststr += '\r\n'
 
-  # If we're a POST request, affix any requested data to the message body.
+  # If we're a POST request, add any requested data to the message body.
   if methodstr == "POST":
     requeststr += postdata
 
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_content.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_content.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_content.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_content.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_content_timeout.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_content_timeout.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_content_timeout.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_content_timeout.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_filelikeobj_closed.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_filelikeobj_closed.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_filelikeobj_closed.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_filelikeobj_closed.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_header_timeout.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_header_timeout.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_header_timeout.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_header_timeout.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_post.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_post.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_post.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_post.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_read_done.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_read_done.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_read_done.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_read_done.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_read_limit.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_read_limit.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_read_limit.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_read_limit.py
diff --git a/tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_redirect_notgiven.py b/tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_redirect_notgiven.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/httpretrieve_test/ut_httpretrieve_redirect_notgiven.py
rename to tests/ut_seattlelib_httpretrieve_redirect_notgiven.py