$url .= '/';
                }
 
+               //convert IDNA hostname to punycode if possible
+               if (function_exists("idn_to_ascii")) {
+                       $parts = parse_url($url);
+                       if (mb_detect_encoding($parts['host']) != 'ASCII')
+                       {
+                               $parts['host'] = idn_to_ascii($parts['host']);
+                               $url = build_url($parts);
+                       }
+               }
+
                if ($url != "http:///")
                        return $url;
                else
 
                        array_push($notices, "CURL and open_basedir combination breaks support for HTTP redirects. See the FAQ for more information.");
                }
 
+               if (!function_exists("idn_to_ascii")) {
+                       array_push($notices, "PHP support for Internationalization Functions is required to handle Internationalized Domain Names.");
+               }
+
                if (count($notices) > 0) {
                        print_notice("Configuration check succeeded with minor problems:");