diff --git a/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitor.java b/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitor.java
index 6ecd354de..5164f0e0d 100644
--- a/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitor.java
+++ b/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitor.java
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import net.i2p.util.Log;
  * Main driver for the app that harvests data about the performance of the network,
  * building summaries for each peer that change over time. <p />
  *
- * Usage: <code>NetMonitor [configFilename] [--routers filename[,filename]*]</code> <p />
+ * Usage: <code>NetMonitor [configFilename] [--routers filename[,filename]*] [--netDbURL url] </code> <p />
  *
  *
  *
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ public class NetMonitor {
     private static final Log _log = new Log(NetMonitor.class);
     public static final String CONFIG_LOCATION_DEFAULT = "netmonitor.config";
     public static final String HARVEST_DELAY_PROP = "harvestDelaySeconds";
-    public static final int HARVEST_DELAY_DEFAULT = 60;
+    public static final int HARVEST_DELAY_DEFAULT = 5*60;
     public static final String EXPORT_DELAY_PROP = "exportDelaySeconds";
     public static final int EXPORT_DELAY_DEFAULT = 120;
     public static final String SUMMARY_DURATION_PROP = "summaryDurationHours";
@@ -41,20 +41,22 @@ public class NetMonitor {
     private int _exportDelay;
     private String _exportDir;
     private String _netDbDir;
+    private String _netDbURL;
     private String _explicitRouters;
     private int _summaryDurationHours;
     private boolean _isRunning;
     private Map _peerSummaries;
     
     public NetMonitor() {
-        this(CONFIG_LOCATION_DEFAULT, null);
+        this(CONFIG_LOCATION_DEFAULT, null, null);
     }
     public NetMonitor(String configLocation) {
-        this(configLocation, null);
+        this(configLocation, null, null);
     }
-    public NetMonitor(String configLocation, String explicitFilenames) {
+    public NetMonitor(String configLocation, String explicitFilenames, String url) {
         _configLocation = configLocation;
         _explicitRouters = explicitFilenames;
+        _netDbURL = url;
         _peerSummaries = new HashMap(32);
         loadConfig();
     }
@@ -127,6 +129,9 @@ public class NetMonitor {
     public String getNetDbDir() { return _netDbDir; }
     /** if specified, contains a set of filenames we want to harvest routerInfo data from */
     public String getExplicitRouters() { return _explicitRouters; }
+    /** if specified, contains a URL to fetch references from */
+    public String getNetDbURL() { return _netDbURL; }
+    
     /** 
      * what peers are we keeping track of?  
      *
@@ -212,11 +217,12 @@ public class NetMonitor {
     
     /**
      * main driver for the netMonitor.  the usage is:
-     * <code>NetMonitor [configFilename] [--routers filename[,filename]*]</code> 
+     * <code>NetMonitor [configFilename] [--routers filename[,filename]*] [--netDbURL url]</code> 
      */
     public static final void main(String args[]) {
         String cfgLocation = CONFIG_LOCATION_DEFAULT;
         String explicitFilenames = null;
+        String explicitURL = null;
         switch (args.length) {
             case 0:
                 break;
@@ -224,16 +230,22 @@ public class NetMonitor {
                 cfgLocation = args[0];
                 break;
             case 2:
-                explicitFilenames = args[1];
+                if ("--routers".equalsIgnoreCase(args[0]))
+                    explicitFilenames = args[1];
+                else
+                    explicitURL = args[1];
                 break;
             case 3:
                 cfgLocation = args[0];
-                explicitFilenames = args[2];
+                if ("--routers".equalsIgnoreCase(args[1]))
+                    explicitFilenames = args[2];
+                else
+                    explicitURL = args[2];
                 break;
             default:
-                System.err.println("Usage: NetMonitor [configFilename] [--routers filename[,filename]*]");
+                System.err.println("Usage: NetMonitor [configFilename] [--routers filename[,filename]*] [--netDbURL url]");
                 return;
         }
-        new NetMonitor(cfgLocation, explicitFilenames).startMonitor();
+        new NetMonitor(cfgLocation, explicitFilenames, explicitURL).startMonitor();
     }
 }
diff --git a/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitorRunner.java b/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitorRunner.java
index 116ba7471..10ab4648c 100644
--- a/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitorRunner.java
+++ b/apps/netmonitor/java/src/net/i2p/netmonitor/NetMonitorRunner.java
@@ -1,12 +1,19 @@
 package net.i2p.netmonitor;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.FilenameFilter;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLConnection;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.StringTokenizer;
 
 import net.i2p.data.DataFormatException;
@@ -64,6 +71,9 @@ class NetMonitorRunner implements Runnable {
      *
      */
     private List getRouters() {
+        if (_monitor.getNetDbURL() != null)
+            return fetchRouters(_monitor.getNetDbURL());
+        
         File routers[] = listRouters();
         List rv = new ArrayList(64);
         if (routers != null) {
@@ -86,6 +96,65 @@ class NetMonitorRunner implements Runnable {
         return rv;
     }
     
+    
+    private List fetchRouters(String seedURL) {
+        List rv = new ArrayList();
+        try {
+            URL dir = new URL(seedURL);
+            String content = new String(readURL(dir));
+            Set urls = new HashSet();
+            int cur = 0;
+            while (true) {
+                int start = content.indexOf("href=\"routerInfo-", cur);
+                if (start < 0)
+                    break;
+
+                int end = content.indexOf(".dat\">", start);
+                String name = content.substring(start+"href=\"routerInfo-".length(), end);
+                urls.add(name);
+                cur = end + 1;
+            }
+
+            for (Iterator iter = urls.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
+                rv.add(fetchSeed((String)iter.next()));
+            }
+        } catch (Throwable t) {
+            _log.error("Error fetching routers from " + seedURL, t);
+        }
+        return rv;
+    }
+    
+    private RouterInfo fetchSeed(String peer) throws Exception {
+        URL url = new URL("http://i2p.net/i2pdb/routerInfo-" + peer + ".dat");
+        if (_log.shouldLog(Log.INFO))
+            _log.info("Fetching seed from " + url.toExternalForm());
+
+        byte data[] = readURL(url);
+        RouterInfo info = new RouterInfo();
+        try {
+            info.fromByteArray(data);
+            return info;
+        } catch (DataFormatException dfe) {
+            _log.error("Router data at " + url.toExternalForm() + " was corrupt", dfe);
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
+    
+    private byte[] readURL(URL url) throws Exception {
+        ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(1024);
+        URLConnection con = url.openConnection();
+        InputStream in = con.getInputStream();
+        byte buf[] = new byte[1024];
+        while (true) {
+            int read = in.read(buf);
+            if (read < 0)
+                break;
+            baos.write(buf, 0, read);
+        }
+        in.close();
+        return baos.toByteArray();
+    }
+    
     /**
      * dump the data to the filesystem
      */