diff --git a/wp-ffpc-backend.php b/wp-ffpc-backend.php
index 4f946b5..13f53e8 100644
--- a/wp-ffpc-backend.php
+++ b/wp-ffpc-backend.php
@@ -676,7 +676,9 @@ class WP_FFPC_Backend {
 
 			/* use binary and not compressed format, good for nginx and still fast */
 			$this->connection->setOption( Memcached::OPT_COMPRESSION , false );
-			$this->connection->setOption( Memcached::OPT_BINARY_PROTOCOL , true );
+                        if ($this->options['memcached_binary']){
+                                $this->connection->setOption( Memcached::OPT_BINARY_PROTOCOL , true );                            
+                        }
 
 			if ( version_compare( phpversion( 'memcached' ) , '2.0.0', '>=' ) && ini_get( 'memcached.use_sasl' ) == 1 && isset($this->options['authpass']) && !empty($this->options['authpass']) && isset($this->options['authuser']) && !empty($this->options['authuser']) ) {
 				$this->connection->setSaslAuthData ( $this->options['authuser'], $this->options['authpass']);
@@ -726,14 +728,14 @@ class WP_FFPC_Backend {
 	private function memcached_status () {
 		/* server status will be calculated by getting server stats */
 		$this->log (  __translate__("checking server statuses", $this->plugin_constant ));
-		/* get servers statistic from connection */
-		$report =  $this->connection->getStats();
+		/* get server list from connection */
+		$servers =  $this->connection->getServerList();
 
-		foreach ( $report as $server_id => $details ) {
+                foreach ( $servers as $server ) {
+			$server_id = $server['host'] . self::port_separator . $server['port'];
 			/* reset server status to offline */
 			$this->status[$server_id] = 0;
-			/* if server uptime is not empty, it's most probably up & running */
-			if ( !empty($details['uptime']) ) {
+                        if ($this->connection->set($this->plugin_constant, time())) {
 				$this->log ( sprintf( __translate__( '%s server is up & running', $this->plugin_constant ),  $server_id ) );
 				$this->status[$server_id] = 1;
 			}
diff --git a/wp-ffpc-class.php b/wp-ffpc-class.php
index 047813c..75ea854 100644
--- a/wp-ffpc-class.php
+++ b/wp-ffpc-class.php
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ class WP_FFPC extends PluginAbstract {
 			{
 				$memcache_protocol = strtolower($memcache_settings['memcache.protocol']['local_value']);
 				if ( $memcache_protocol == 'binary' ) {
-					$this->errors['binary_memcache'] = __('WARNING: Memcache extension is configured to use binary mode. This is very buggy and the plugin will most probably not work correctly. <br />Please consider to change either to ASCII mode or to Memcached extension.', $this->plugin_constant );
+					$this->errors['memcached_binary'] = __('WARNING: Memcache extension is configured to use binary mode. This is very buggy and the plugin will most probably not work correctly. <br />Please consider to change either to ASCII mode or to Memcached extension.', $this->plugin_constant );
 				}
 			}
 		}
@@ -687,6 +687,14 @@ class WP_FFPC extends PluginAbstract {
 					<?php _e('List of backends, with the following syntax: <br />- in case of TCP based connections, list the servers as host1:port1,host2:port2,... . Do not add trailing , and always separate host and port with : .<br />- in2.0.0b1 case using unix sockets with the Memcache driver: unix:// ', $this->plugin_constant); ?></span>
 				</dd>
 
+				<dt>
+					<label for="memcached_binary"><?php _e('Enable memcached binary mode', $this->plugin_constant); ?></label>
+				</dt>
+				<dd>
+					<input type="checkbox" name="memcached_binary" id="memcached_binary" value="1" <?php checked($this->options['memcached_binary'],true); ?> />
+					<span class="description"><?php _e('Some memcached proxies and implementations only support the ASCII protocol.', $this->plugin_constant); ?></span>
+				</dd>
+                                
 				<?php
 				if ( strstr ( $this->options['cache_type'], 'memcached') && extension_loaded ( 'memcached' ) && version_compare( phpversion( 'memcached' ) , '2.0.0', '>=' ) || ( $this->options['cache_type'] == 'redis' ) ) { ?>
 				<?php
diff --git a/wp-ffpc.php b/wp-ffpc.php
index 7cbe7d1..c6c9ace 100644
--- a/wp-ffpc.php
+++ b/wp-ffpc.php
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ include_once ( 'wp-ffpc-class.php' );
 
 $wp_ffpc_defaults = array (
 	'hosts'=>'127.0.0.1:11211',
+	'memcached_binary' => false,
 	'authpass'=>'',
 	'authuser'=>'',
 	'expire'=>300,