diff -up gnash-0.8.8/libbase/curl_adapter.cpp~ gnash-0.8.8/libbase/curl_adapter.cpp
--- gnash-0.8.8/libbase/curl_adapter.cpp~	2010-08-07 17:50:00.000000000 +0200
+++ gnash-0.8.8/libbase/curl_adapter.cpp	2010-08-27 10:44:37.665493001 +0200
@@ -648,6 +648,11 @@ CurlStreamFile::fillCache(std::streamsiz
         log_debug("Max fd: %d", maxfd);
 #endif
 
+        /* HDG: newer libcurl versions (atleast 7.21.x) return -1 for maxfd
+           while they are doing dns resolving in combination with a short
+           (7ms) return value from curl_multi_timeout. We always use a short
+           timeout, so things work fine once we remove the maxfd < 0 check. */
+#if 0
         // A value of -1 means no file descriptors were added.
         if (maxfd < 0) {
 #if GNASH_CURL_VERBOSE
@@ -655,6 +660,7 @@ CurlStreamFile::fillCache(std::streamsiz
 #endif
             break;
         }
+#endif
 
         FD_ZERO(&readfd);
         FD_ZERO(&writefd);