diff -u -r src.orig/cfgparse.c src/cfgparse.c
--- src.orig/cfgparse.c	Tue Jan  4 18:11:59 2005
+++ src/cfgparse.c	Fri Jul 14 23:02:46 2006
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
 #define DEFAULT_RESAMPLE 0
 #define DEFAULT_RECONN_DELAY 2
 #define DEFAULT_RECONN_ATTEMPTS 10
+#define DEFAULT_RETRY_INIT 0
 #define DEFAULT_MAXQUEUELENGTH 100 /* Make it _BIG_ by default */
 #define DEFAULT_SAVEFILENAME NULL /* NULL == don't save */
 
@@ -138,6 +139,7 @@
     instance->resampleoutrate = DEFAULT_RESAMPLE;
     instance->reconnect_delay = DEFAULT_RECONN_DELAY;
     instance->reconnect_attempts = DEFAULT_RECONN_ATTEMPTS;
+    instance->retry_initial_connection = DEFAULT_RETRY_INIT;
     instance->max_queue_length = DEFAULT_MAXQUEUELENGTH;
     instance->savefilename = DEFAULT_SAVEFILENAME;
 
@@ -255,6 +257,8 @@
             SET_INT(instance->reconnect_delay);
         else if(strcmp(node->name, "reconnectattempts") == 0)
             SET_INT(instance->reconnect_attempts);
+        else if(strcmp(node->name, "retry") == 0)
+            SET_INT(instance->retry_initial_connection);
         else if(strcmp(node->name, "maxqueuelength") == 0)
             SET_INT(instance->max_queue_length);
         else if(strcmp(node->name, "downmix") == 0)
diff -u -r src.orig/cfgparse.h src/cfgparse.h
--- src.orig/cfgparse.h	Tue Jan  4 18:10:15 2005
+++ src/cfgparse.h	Fri Jul 14 23:02:46 2006
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
     struct _module_param_tag *next;
 } module_param_t;
 
-/* FIXME: orward declaraction because my headers are a mess. */
+/* FIXME: forward declaraction because my headers are a mess. */
 struct buffer_queue;
 
 typedef struct _instance_tag
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
     char *mount;
     int reconnect_delay;
     int reconnect_attempts;
+    int retry_initial_connection;
     int encode;
     int downmix;
     int resampleinrate;
diff -u -r src.orig/stream.c src/stream.c
--- src.orig/stream.c	Fri Nov  5 20:19:54 2004
+++ src/stream.c	Fri Jul 14 23:26:19 2006
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
  */
 void *ices_instance_stream(void *arg)
 {
-    int ret, shouterr;
+    int ret, shouterr, initial_attempts;
     ref_buffer *buffer;
     stream_description *sdsc = arg;
     instance_t *stream = sdsc->stream;
@@ -214,6 +214,8 @@
             LOG_INFO1("Saving stream to file %s", stream->savefilename);
     }
 
+    initial_attempts = 0;
+retry:
     if((shouterr = shout_open(sdsc->shout)) == SHOUTERR_SUCCESS)
     {
         LOG_INFO3("Connected to server: %s:%d%s", 
@@ -340,6 +342,17 @@
     }
     else
     {
+	if (stream->retry_initial_connection &&
+	    (initial_attempts++ < stream->reconnect_attempts ||
+	     stream->reconnect_attempts == -1) && 
+	    !ices_config->shutdown)
+	{
+	    shout_close(sdsc->shout);
+	    LOG_WARN4("Retrying connection to %s:%d (%s: %s)", 
+               shout_get_host(sdsc->shout),shout_get_port(sdsc->shout), shout_get_error(sdsc->shout), strerror(errno));
+	    thread_sleep (stream->reconnect_delay*1000000);
+	    goto retry;
+	}
         LOG_ERROR4("Failed initial connect to %s:%d (%s: %s)", 
                 shout_get_host(sdsc->shout),shout_get_port(sdsc->shout), shout_get_error(sdsc->shout), strerror(errno));
     }