diff -ruN yum-utils-1.1.18.old/plugins/fastestmirror/fastestmirror.py yum-utils-1.1.18/plugins/fastestmirror/fastestmirror.py
--- yum-utils-1.1.18.old/plugins/fastestmirror/fastestmirror.py	2008-12-25 16:45:42.000000000 +0800
+++ yum-utils-1.1.18/plugins/fastestmirror/fastestmirror.py	2008-12-25 16:46:30.000000000 +0800
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 import urlparse
 import datetime
 import threading
+import urllib2
 
 from yum.plugins import TYPE_CORE
 
@@ -464,15 +465,19 @@
                 if self.host in ("127.0.0.1", "::1", "localhost"):
                     result = 0
                 else:
-                    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
-                    uPort = string.find(self.host,":")
-                    if uPort > 0:
-                        self.port = int(self.host[uPort+1:])
-                        self.host = self.host[:uPort]
+                    headers = {'Pragma': 'no-cache',
+                    'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'   }
+
+                    url = "%s/repodata/repomd.xml" % self.mirror
+                    request = urllib2.Request(url, None, headers)
                     time_before = time.time()
-                    sock.connect((self.host, self.port))
-                    result = time.time() - time_before
-                    sock.close()
+                    usock = urllib2.urlopen(request)
+                    fsize =  len(usock.read())
+                    elapsed = time.time() - time_before
+                    result = (elapsed*10000) / fsize
+                    if verbose:
+                       print "Timed %s (score: %.1f)" % (self.host,fsize/elapsed/1024.0)
+
             self.parent._add_result(self.mirror, self.host, result)
         except:
             if verbose: