diff --git a/plugins/network/transmission_ratios/tr_ratios b/plugins/network/transmission_ratios/tr_ratios
index 1e59ff3f..b2be2160 100755
--- a/plugins/network/transmission_ratios/tr_ratios
+++ b/plugins/network/transmission_ratios/tr_ratios
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # -*- sh -*-
 
-user=''
-pass=''
 : <<=cut
 
 =head1 NAME
@@ -39,29 +37,55 @@ unspecified
 =cut
 
 
+CONNECTION_ARG="${host:-localhost}:${port:-9091}"
+USERNAME="${username:-}"
+PASSWORD="${password:-}"
+
+
+# return a space separated list of transmissions with the following columns:
+#  * fieldname
+#  * ratio (in percent)
+#  * name of the transmissions
+request_transmission_stats() {
+	if [ -n "$USERNAME$PASSWORD" ]; then
+		transmission-remote "$CONNECTION_ARG" --auth "$USERNAME:$PASSWORD" --list
+	else
+		transmission-remote "$CONNECTION_ARG" --list
+	fi | awk '
+		BEGIN { FIELDWIDTHS = "7 4 13 10 7 9 7 13 40" }
+		NR > 1 {
+			split($1,torrentid," ")
+			# remove "*" from the ID of stopped transmissions
+			sub(/\*/, "", torrentid[1])
+			if (torrentid[1] != "Sum:") {
+				split($7,ratio," ")
+				ratio[1] = ratio[1] * 100
+				print "ID" torrentid[1], ratio[1], $9
+			}
+		}'
+}
+
+
+if [ "$1" = "autoconf" ]; then
+	if [ -n "$(request_transmission_stats 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
+		echo "yes"
+	else
+		if which transmission-remote >/dev/null; then
+			echo "no (failed to connect to daemon)"
+		else
+			echo "no (missing 'transmission-remote' program)"
+		fi
+	fi
+        exit 0
+fi
+
 if [ "$1" = "config" ]; then
         echo "graph_title Transmission seed ratios"
 	echo "graph_vlabel Seed ratio %"
 	echo "graph_category torrent"
 	echo "graph_info This plugin shows your transmission ratios per torrent"
-	transmission-remote -n "$user:$pass" -l | awk '
-		BEGIN { FIELDWIDTHS = "7 4 13 10 7 9 7 13 40" }
-		NR > 1 {
-			split($1,torrentid," ")
-			if (torrentid[1] != "Sum:") {
-				print "ID" torrentid[1] ".label " $9
-			}
-		}' | iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit
+	request_transmission_stats | awk '{print $1 ".label " $3 }' | iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit
         exit 0
 fi
 
-transmission-remote -n "$user:$pass" -l | awk '
-	BEGIN { FIELDWIDTHS = "7 4 13 10 7 9 7 13 40" }
-	NR > 1 {
-		split($1,torrentid," ")
-		if (torrentid[1] != "Sum:") {
-			split($7,ratio," ")
-			ratio[1] = ratio[1] * 100
-			print "ID" torrentid[1] ".value " ratio[1]
-		}
-	}'
+request_transmission_stats | awk '{print $1 ".value " $2 }'