diff --git a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/HWPFTestDataSamples.java b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/HWPFTestDataSamples.java
index 4f0f81457..891acc583 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/HWPFTestDataSamples.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/HWPFTestDataSamples.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.zip.ZipInputStream;
 
 import org.apache.poi.POIDataSamples;
@@ -90,6 +91,58 @@ public class HWPFTestDataSamples {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Open a remote sample from URL. opening is performd in two phases:
+     *  (1) download content into a byte array
+     *  (2) construct HWPFDocument
+     *
+     * @param sampleFileUrl the url to open
+     */
+    public static HWPFDocument openRemoteFile( String sampleFileUrl )
+    {
+        final long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        try
+        {
+            InputStream is = new URL( sampleFileUrl ).openStream();
+            try
+            {
+                ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+                try
+                {
+                    IOUtils.copy( is, baos );
+                }
+                finally
+                {
+                    baos.close();
+                }
+
+                final long endDownload = System.currentTimeMillis();
+                byte[] byteArray = baos.toByteArray();
+
+                logger.log( POILogger.DEBUG, "Downloaded in ",
+                        Long.valueOf( endDownload - start ), " ms -- ",
+                        Long.valueOf( byteArray.length ), " byte(s)" );
+
+                ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream( byteArray );
+                HWPFDocument doc = new HWPFDocument( bais );
+                final long endParse = System.currentTimeMillis();
+
+                logger.log( POILogger.DEBUG, "Parsed in ",
+                        Long.valueOf( endParse - start ), " ms" );
+
+                return doc;
+            }
+            finally
+            {
+                is.close();
+            }
+        }
+        catch ( IOException e )
+        {
+            throw new RuntimeException( e );
+        }
+    }
+
     public static HWPFOldDocument openOldSampleFile(String sampleFileName) {
        try {
            InputStream is = POIDataSamples.getDocumentInstance().openResourceAsStream(sampleFileName);
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/TestBugs.java b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/TestBugs.java
index b19622ff3..5566caf46 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/TestBugs.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/TestBugs.java
@@ -511,14 +511,6 @@ public class TestBugs extends TestCase
         }
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Bug 51524 - PapBinTable constructor is slow
-     */
-    public void test51524()
-    {
-        HWPFTestDataSamples.openSampleFileFromArchive( "Bug51524.zip" );
-    }
-
     /**
      * [RESOLVED FIXED] Bug 51604 - replace text fails for doc ( poi 3.8 beta
      * release from download site )
@@ -649,13 +641,22 @@ public class TestBugs extends TestCase
     }
 
 
+
     /**
      * Bug 51678 - Extracting text from Bug51524.zip is slow
+     * Bug 51524 - PapBinTable constructor is slow
      */
-    public void test51678()
+    public void test51678And51524()
     {
-        HWPFDocument hwpfDocument = HWPFTestDataSamples.openSampleFileFromArchive( "Bug51524.zip" );
-        WordExtractor wordExtractor = new WordExtractor( hwpfDocument );
-        wordExtractor.getText();
+        // YK: the test will run only if the poi.test.remote system property is set.
+        // TODO: refactor into something nicer!
+        if(System.getProperty("poi.test.remote") != null) {
+            String href = "http://domex.nps.edu/corp/files/govdocs1/007/007488.doc";
+            HWPFDocument hwpfDocument = HWPFTestDataSamples.openRemoteFile( href );
+
+            WordExtractor wordExtractor = new WordExtractor( hwpfDocument );
+            wordExtractor.getText();
+        }
+
     }
 }
diff --git a/test-data/document/Bug51524.zip b/test-data/document/Bug51524.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 4e5281f0c..000000000
Binary files a/test-data/document/Bug51524.zip and /dev/null differ