diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 0f7336b2d..e9678eee8 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@
                                   Changelog
 
 
+Daniel (11 January 2005)
+- Bruce Mitchener identified (bug report #1099640) the never-ending SOCKS5
+  problem with the version byte and the check for bad versions. Bruce has lots
+  of clues on this, and based on his suggestion I've now removed the check of
+  that byte since it seems to be able to contain 1 or 5.
+
 Daniel (10 January 2005)
 - Pavel Orehov reported memory problems with the multi interface in bug report
   #1098843. In short, a shared DNS cache was setup for a multi handle and when
diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index fd94aca1f..54453c8e9 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ This release includes the following changes:
 
 This release includes the following bugfixes:
 
+ o SOCKS5 version check
  o memory problem with cleaning up multi interface
  o SSL certificate name memory leak
  o -d with -G to multiple URLs crashed
@@ -34,6 +35,6 @@ advice from friends like these:
 
  Dan Fandrich, Peter Pentchev, Marcin Konicki, Rune Kleveland, David Shaw,
  Werner Koch, Gisle Vanem, Alex Neblett, Kai Sommerfeld, Marty Kuhrt,
- Hzhijun, Pavel Orehov
+ Hzhijun, Pavel Orehov, Bruce Mitchener
 
         Thanks! (and sorry if I forgot to mention someone)
diff --git a/lib/url.c b/lib/url.c
index 29c35bf05..6c3b662b4 100644
--- a/lib/url.c
+++ b/lib/url.c
@@ -1829,8 +1829,8 @@ static int handleSock5Proxy(const char *proxy_name,
       return 1;
     }
 
-    if ((socksreq[0] != 5) || /* version */
-        (socksreq[1] != 0)) { /* status */
+    /* ignore the first (VER) byte */
+    if (socksreq[1] != 0) { /* status */
       failf(conn->data, "User was rejected by the SOCKS5 server (%d %d).",
             socksreq[0], socksreq[1]);
       return 1;