diff --git a/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in b/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in
index ba8d44fe24..ea37c818d3 100644
--- a/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in
+++ b/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
-use strict;
+use DBI;
 use File::Basename;
+use IO::Select;
 use Nix::Config;
 use Nix::Store;
-use DBI;
+use WWW::Curl::Easy;
+use WWW::Curl::Multi;
+use strict;
 
 
 my @binaryCacheUrls = map { s/\/+$//; $_ } split(/ /, ($ENV{"NIX_BINARY_CACHES"} || ""));
@@ -12,6 +15,58 @@ my @binaryCacheUrls = map { s/\/+$//; $_ } split(/ /, ($ENV{"NIX_BINARY_CACHES"}
 my ($dbh, $insertNAR, $queryNAR, $insertNegativeNAR, $queryNegativeNAR);
 my %cacheIds;
 
+my $curlm = WWW::Curl::Multi->new;
+my $activeRequests = 0;
+my $curlIdCount = 1;
+my %curlHandles;
+my $caBundle = $ENV{"CURL_CA_BUNDLE"} || $ENV{"OPENSSL_X509_CERT_FILE"};
+
+
+sub addRequest {
+    my ($url) = @_;
+    
+    my $curl = WWW::Curl::Easy->new;
+    my $curlId = $curlIdCount++;
+    $curlHandles{$curlId} = { handle => $curl, content => "" };
+
+    $curl->setopt(CURLOPT_PRIVATE, $curlId);
+    $curl->setopt(CURLOPT_URL, $url);
+    $curl->setopt(CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, \$curlHandles{$curlId}->{content});
+    $curl->setopt(CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
+    $curl->setopt(CURLOPT_CAINFO, $caBundle) if defined $caBundle;
+
+    $curlm->add_handle($curl);
+    $activeRequests++;
+
+    return $curlHandles{$curlId};
+}
+
+
+sub processRequests {
+    while ($activeRequests) {
+        my ($rfds, $wfds, $efds) = $curlm->fdset();
+        #print STDERR "R = @{$rfds}, W = @{$wfds}, E = @{$efds}\n";
+
+        # Sleep until we can read or write some data.
+        if (scalar @{$rfds} + scalar @{$wfds} + scalar @{$efds} > 0) {
+            IO::Select->select(IO::Select->new(@{$rfds}), IO::Select->new(@{$wfds}), IO::Select->new(@{$efds}), 0.1);
+        }
+        
+        if ($curlm->perform() != $activeRequests) {
+            while (my ($id, $result) = $curlm->info_read) {
+                if ($id) {
+                    my $handle = $curlHandles{$id}->{handle};
+                    $curlHandles{$id}->{result} = $result;
+                    $curlHandles{$id}->{httpStatus} = $handle->getinfo(CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
+                    #print STDERR "\nRequest completed ($id, $result, $curlHandles{$id}->{httpStatus})\n";
+                    $activeRequests--;
+                    delete $curlHandles{$id}->{handle};
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 
 sub initCache {
     my $dbPath = "$Nix::Config::stateDir/binary-cache-v1.sqlite";
@@ -86,11 +141,13 @@ sub getInfoFrom {
     
     my $infoUrl = "$binaryCacheUrl/$pathHash.narinfo";
     print STDERR "checking $infoUrl...\n";
-    my $s = `$Nix::Config::curl --fail --silent --location $infoUrl`;
-    if ($? != 0) {
-        my $status = $? >> 8;
-        if ($status != 22 && $status != 37) {
-            print STDERR "could not download ‘$infoUrl’ (curl returned status ", $? >> 8, ")\n";
+    my $request = addRequest($infoUrl);
+    processRequests;
+
+    if ($request->{result} != 0 || $request->{httpStatus} != 200) {
+        if ($request->{httpStatus} != 404) {
+            print STDERR "could not download ‘$infoUrl’ (" .
+                ($request->{result} != 0 ? "Curl error $request->{result}" : "HTTP status $request->{httpStatus}") . ")\n";
         } else {
             $insertNegativeNAR->execute($cacheId, basename($storePath), time());
         }
@@ -100,7 +157,7 @@ sub getInfoFrom {
     my ($storePath2, $url, $fileHash, $fileSize, $narHash, $narSize, $deriver, $system);
     my $compression = "bzip2";
     my @refs;
-    foreach my $line (split "\n", $s) {
+    foreach my $line (split "\n", $request->{content}) {
         $line =~ /^(.*): (.*)$/ or return undef;
         if ($1 eq "StorePath") { $storePath2 = $2; }
         elsif ($1 eq "URL") { $url = $2; }
@@ -248,9 +305,9 @@ if ($ARGV[0] eq "--query") {
         if ($cmd eq "have") {
             my $storePath = <STDIN>; chomp $storePath;
             # FIXME: want to give correct info here, but it's too slow.
-            print "0\n";
-            #my $info = getInfo($storePath);
-            #if (defined $info) { print "1\n"; } else { print "0\n"; }
+            #print "0\n";
+            my $info = getInfo($storePath);
+            if (defined $info) { print "1\n"; } else { print "0\n"; }
         }
 
         elsif ($cmd eq "info") {