diff --git a/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.html b/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.html
index cc2080823..32b8937d7 100644
--- a/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.html
+++ b/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.html
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@
         <li><code>statusCode</code> is the status code of the response, or the error code if the request could not be completed</li>
         <li><code>headers</code> is an object containing the response headers</li>
     </ul>
-    <p><b>Note</b>: See the <i>settings.js</i> file if you need to configure a proxy.</p>
+    <p><b>Note</b>: If you need to configure a proxy please add <b>http_proxy=...</b> to your environment variables and restart Node-RED.</p>
 </script>
 
 <script type="text/javascript">
diff --git a/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.js b/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.js
index 8518c196f..84b459b38 100644
--- a/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.js
+++ b/nodes/core/io/21-httpin.js
@@ -248,19 +248,25 @@ module.exports = function(RED) {
                     }
                 }
                 if (opts.headers['content-length'] == null) {
-                    opts.headers['content-length'] = Buffer.byteLength(payload);
+                    if (Buffer.isBuffer(payload)) {
+                        opts.headers['content-length'] = payload.length;
+                    } else {
+                        opts.headers['content-length'] = Buffer.byteLength(payload);
+                    }
                 }
             }
             var urltotest = url;
-            if (RED.settings.httpNodeProxy) {
-                var proxy = RED.settings.httpNodeProxy.host;
-                opts.protocol = "http:";
-                opts.headers['Host'] = opts.host;
-                opts.host = opts.hostname = proxy;
-                opts.port = RED.settings.httpNodeProxy.port || opts.port;
-                if (opts.port) { opts.host = opts.host+":"+opts.port; }
-                opts.path = opts.pathname = opts.href;
-                urltotest = proxy;
+            if (process.env.http_proxy != null) {
+                var match = process.env.http_proxy.match(/^(http:\/\/)?([^:\/]+)(:([0-9]+))?/i);
+                if (match) {
+                    opts.protocol = "http:";
+                    opts.headers['Host'] = opts.host;
+                    opts.host = opts.hostname = match[2],
+                    opts.port = (match[4] != null ? match[4] : 80),
+                    opts.path = opts.pathname = opts.href;
+                    urltotest = match[2];
+                }
+                else { node.warn("Bad proxy url: "+process.env.http_proxy); }
             }
             var req = ((/^https/.test(urltotest))?https:http).request(opts,function(res) {
                 (node.ret === "bin") ? res.setEncoding('binary') : res.setEncoding('utf8');
diff --git a/settings.js b/settings.js
index 89f5eee0a..68fcda7cb 100644
--- a/settings.js
+++ b/settings.js
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 // to make it available:
 //var fs = require("fs");
 
- 
 module.exports = {
     // the tcp port that the Node-RED web server is listening on
     uiPort: 1880,
@@ -50,7 +49,7 @@ module.exports = {
     // To enabled pretty-printing of the flow within the flow file, set the following
     //  property to true:
     //flowFilePretty: true,
-    
+
     // By default, all user data is stored in the Node-RED install directory. To
     // use a different location, the following property can be used
     //userDir: '/home/nol/.node-red/',
@@ -73,12 +72,12 @@ module.exports = {
     // can be used to specifiy a different root path. If set to false, this is
     // disabled.
     //httpNodeRoot: '/nodes',
-    
+
     // To password protect the node-defined HTTP endpoints, the following property
     // can be used.
     // The password must be an md5 hash  eg.. 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99 ('password')
     //httpNodeAuth: {user:"user",pass:"5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99"},
-    
+
     // When httpAdminRoot is used to move the UI to a different root path, the
     // following property can be used to identify a directory of static content
     // that should be served at http://localhost:1880/.
@@ -87,26 +86,26 @@ module.exports = {
     // To password protect the static content, the following property can be used.
     // The password must be an md5 hash  eg.. 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99 ('password')
     //httpStaticAuth: {user:"user",pass:"5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99"},
-    
+
     // The following property can be used in place of 'httpAdminRoot' and 'httpNodeRoot',
     // to apply the same root to both parts.
     //httpRoot: '/red',
-    
+
     // The following property can be used in place of 'httpAdminAuth' and 'httpNodeAuth',
     // to apply the same authentication to both parts.
     //httpAuth: {user:"user",pass:"5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99"},
-    
+
     // The following property can be used to disable the editor. The admin API
     // is not affected by this option. To disable both the editor and the admin
     // API, use either the httpRoot or httpAdminRoot properties
     //disableEditor: false,
-    
+
     // The following property can be used to enable HTTPS
     // See http://nodejs.org/api/https.html#https_https_createserver_options_requestlistener
     // for details on its contents.
     // See the comment at the top of this file on how to load the `fs` module used by
     // this setting.
-    // 
+    //
     //https: {
     //    key: fs.readFileSync('privatekey.pem'),
     //    cert: fs.readFileSync('certificate.pem')
@@ -121,9 +120,11 @@ module.exports = {
     //    methods: "GET,PUT,POST,DELETE"
     //},
 
-    // The following property can be used to configure a proxy for use by the
-    // http request node.
-    //httpNodeProxy : { host:"myproxy.acme.com", port:8080 },
+    // If you need to set an http proxy please set an environment variable
+    // called http_proxy outside of Node-RED in the operating system.
+    // For example - http_proxy=http://myproxy.com:8080
+    // (Setting it here will have no effect)
+
 
     // The following property can be used to add a custom middleware function
     // in front of all http in nodes. This allows custom authentication to be
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ module.exports = {
     //   // by calling next();
     //   next();
     //},
-    
+
     // Anything in this hash is globally available to all functions.
     // It is accessed as context.global.
     // eg:
@@ -147,8 +148,7 @@ module.exports = {
         // jfive:require("johnny-five"),
         // j5board:require("johnny-five").Board({repl:false})
     },
-    
-    
+
     // The following property can be used to order the categories in the editor
     // palette. If a node's category is not in the list, the category will get
     // added to the end of the palette.
@@ -159,15 +159,15 @@ module.exports = {
     logging: {
         // Only console logging is currently supported
         console: {
-            // Level of logging to be recorded. Options are: 
+            // Level of logging to be recorded. Options are:
             // fatal - only those errors which make the application unusable should be recorded
-            // error - record errors which are deemed fatal for a particular request + fatal errors 
+            // error - record errors which are deemed fatal for a particular request + fatal errors
             // warn - record problems which are non fatal + errors + fatal errors
             // info - record information about the general running of the application + warn + error + fatal errors
             // debug - record information which is more verbose than info + info + warn + error + fatal errors
             // trace - record very detailed logging + debug + info + warn + error + fatal errors
             level: "info",
-            
+
             // Whether or not to include metric events in the log output
             metrics: false
         }