diff --git a/akka-core/src/main/scala/remote/RemoteServer.scala b/akka-core/src/main/scala/remote/RemoteServer.scala
index f905f69b26..e37edbc5d3 100755
--- a/akka-core/src/main/scala/remote/RemoteServer.scala
+++ b/akka-core/src/main/scala/remote/RemoteServer.scala
@@ -105,20 +105,22 @@ class RemoteServer extends Logging {
   def start(_hostname: String, _port: Int): Unit = start(_hostname, _port, None)
 
   def start(_hostname: String, _port: Int, loader: Option[ClassLoader]): Unit = synchronized {
-    if (!isRunning) {
-      hostname = _hostname
-      port = _port
-      log.info("Starting remote server at [%s:%s]", hostname, port)
-      bootstrap.setPipelineFactory(new RemoteServerPipelineFactory(name, openChannels, loader))
-
-      // FIXME make these RemoteServer options configurable
-      bootstrap.setOption("child.tcpNoDelay", true)
-      bootstrap.setOption("child.keepAlive", true)
-      bootstrap.setOption("child.reuseAddress", true)
-      bootstrap.setOption("child.connectTimeoutMillis", RemoteServer.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MILLIS)
-      openChannels.add(bootstrap.bind(new InetSocketAddress(hostname, port)))
-      isRunning = true
-      Cluster.registerLocalNode(hostname,port)
+    try {
+      if (!isRunning) {
+        hostname = _hostname
+        port = _port
+        log.info("Starting remote server at [%s:%s]", hostname, port)
+        bootstrap.setPipelineFactory(new RemoteServerPipelineFactory(name, openChannels, loader))
+        bootstrap.setOption("child.tcpNoDelay", true)
+        bootstrap.setOption("child.keepAlive", true)
+        bootstrap.setOption("child.reuseAddress", true)
+        bootstrap.setOption("child.connectTimeoutMillis", RemoteServer.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MILLIS)
+        openChannels.add(bootstrap.bind(new InetSocketAddress(hostname, port)))
+        isRunning = true
+        Cluster.registerLocalNode(hostname,port)
+      }      
+    } catch {
+      case e => log.error(e, "Could not start up remote server")
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/config/akka-reference.conf b/config/akka-reference.conf
index 3d6a9106a9..0f6c137195 100644
--- a/config/akka-reference.conf
+++ b/config/akka-reference.conf
@@ -34,6 +34,14 @@
     distributed = off           # not implemented yet
   </stm>
  
+  <rest>
+    service = on
+    hostname = "localhost"
+    port = 9998
+    filters = "[se.scalablesolutions.akka.security.AkkaSecurityFilterFactory]"              # List with all jersey filters to use
+    authenticator = "se.scalablesolutions.akka.security.samples.BasicAuthenticationService" # The authentication service to use
+  </rest>
+
   <remote>
     compression-scheme = "zlib" # Options: "zlib" (lzf to come), leave out for no compression
     zlib-compression-level = 6  # Options: 0-9 (1 being fastest and 9 being the most compressed), default is 6
@@ -57,14 +65,6 @@
     <client>
   </remote>
  
-  <rest>
-    service = on
-    hostname = "localhost"
-    port = 9998
-    filters = "[se.scalablesolutions.akka.security.AkkaSecurityFilterFactory]"              # List with all jersey filters to use
-    authenticator = "se.scalablesolutions.akka.security.samples.BasicAuthenticationService" # The authentication service to use
-  </rest>
-  
   <storage>
     <cassandra>
       hostname = "127.0.0.1"        # IP address or hostname of one of the Cassandra cluster's seeds