diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
index 4c7225fc4..55c1bb54d 100644
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -223,7 +223,8 @@ std::string HelpMessage(HelpMessageMode hmm)
     strUsage += "  -connect=<ip>          " + _("Connect only to the specified node(s)") + "\n";
     strUsage += "  -discover              " + _("Discover own IP address (default: 1 when listening and no -externalip)") + "\n";
     strUsage += "  -dns                   " + _("Allow DNS lookups for -addnode, -seednode and -connect") + " " + _("(default: 1)") + "\n";
-    strUsage += "  -dnsseed               " + _("Find peers using DNS lookup (default: 1 unless -connect)") + "\n";
+    strUsage += "  -dnsseed               " + _("Query for peer addresses via DNS lookup, if low on addresses (default: 1 unless -connect)") + "\n";
+    strUsage += "  -forcednsseed          " + _("Always query for peer addresses via DNS lookup (default: 0)") + "\n";
     strUsage += "  -externalip=<ip>       " + _("Specify your own public address") + "\n";
     strUsage += "  -listen                " + _("Accept connections from outside (default: 1 if no -proxy or -connect)") + "\n";
     strUsage += "  -maxconnections=<n>    " + _("Maintain at most <n> connections to peers (default: 125)") + "\n";
diff --git a/src/net.cpp b/src/net.cpp
index 5f284e0e2..02e870901 100644
--- a/src/net.cpp
+++ b/src/net.cpp
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ bool GetMyExternalIP(CNetAddr& ipRet)
     const char* pszKeyword;
 
     for (int nLookup = 0; nLookup <= 1; nLookup++)
-    for (int nHost = 1; nHost <= 2; nHost++)
+    for (int nHost = 1; nHost <= 1; nHost++)
     {
         // We should be phasing out our use of sites like these. If we need
         // replacements, we should ask for volunteers to put this simple
@@ -375,25 +375,6 @@ bool GetMyExternalIP(CNetAddr& ipRet)
 
             pszKeyword = "Address:";
         }
-        else if (nHost == 2)
-        {
-            addrConnect = CService("74.208.43.192", 80); // www.showmyip.com
-
-            if (nLookup == 1)
-            {
-                CService addrIP("www.showmyip.com", 80, true);
-                if (addrIP.IsValid())
-                    addrConnect = addrIP;
-            }
-
-            pszGet = "GET /simple/ HTTP/1.1\r\n"
-                     "Host: www.showmyip.com\r\n"
-                     "User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)\r\n"
-                     "Connection: close\r\n"
-                     "\r\n";
-
-            pszKeyword = NULL; // Returns just IP address
-        }
 
         if (GetMyExternalIP2(addrConnect, pszGet, pszKeyword, ipRet))
             return true;
@@ -1185,6 +1166,18 @@ void MapPort(bool)
 
 void ThreadDNSAddressSeed()
 {
+    // goal: only query DNS seeds if address need is acute
+    if ((addrman.size() > 0) &&
+        (!GetBoolArg("-forcednsseed", false))) {
+        MilliSleep(11 * 1000);
+
+        LOCK(cs_vNodes);
+        if (vNodes.size() >= 2) {
+            LogPrintf("P2P peers available. Skipped DNS seeding.\n");
+            return;
+        }
+    }
+
     const vector<CDNSSeedData> &vSeeds = Params().DNSSeeds();
     int found = 0;