diff --git a/irssi.changes b/irssi.changes
index cf0954f..2623f6a 100644
--- a/irssi.changes
+++ b/irssi.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thu Sep  4 15:31:08 UTC 2014 - mrueckert@suse.de
+
+- add conditional to enable socks support but disable by default.
+  unless we can find a way to have socks support so it works
+  without an existing socks.conf.
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Jul 29 16:16:01 UTC 2014 - mrueckert@suse.de
 
diff --git a/irssi.spec b/irssi.spec
index 6b64b63..728903b 100644
--- a/irssi.spec
+++ b/irssi.spec
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 # Please submit bugfixes or comments via http://bugs.opensuse.org/
 #
 
+%bcond_with socks
 
 Name:           irssi
 Version:        0.8.16
@@ -23,9 +24,11 @@ Release:        0
 #
 #
 BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build
+%if %{with socks}
 %if 0%{?suse_version} > 1110
 BuildRequires:  dante-devel
 %endif
+%endif
 BuildRequires:  glib2-devel
 BuildRequires:  ncurses-devel
 BuildRequires:  openssl-devel
@@ -112,8 +115,10 @@ export CFLAGS="%{optflags} -fno-strict-aliasing -DGLIB_DISABLE_DEPRECATION_WARNI
 		--enable-ipv6   \
 		--with-bot      \
 		--with-proxy    \
-		--with-socks    \
 		--enable-ssl    \
+    %if %{with socks}
+    --with-socks    \
+    %endif
 		--with-ncurses  \
 		--with-terminfo \
 		--with-perl=yes \