diff --git a/modules/io/pymod/__init__.py b/modules/io/pymod/__init__.py
index 7cf8437f7c60b8efb080ae5790e79e70542bf30e..4d6018fa07efdeb417abcab62346c00c248ff391 100644
--- a/modules/io/pymod/__init__.py
+++ b/modules/io/pymod/__init__.py
@@ -300,11 +300,9 @@ def LoadMMCIF(filename, restrict_chains="", fault_tolerant=None, calpha_only=Non
   prof.fault_tolerant=_override(prof.fault_tolerant, fault_tolerant)
 
   if remote:
-    output_dir = tempfile.gettempdir()
-    if __GetModelFromPDB(filename, output_dir):
-      filename = os.path.join(output_dir, 'pdb%s.ent.gz' % filename)
-    else:
-      raise IOError('Can not load PDB %s from www.pdb.org'%filename) 
+    from ost.io.remote import RemoteGet
+    tmp_file =RemoteGet(filename, from_repo='cif')
+    filename = tmp_file.name
   
   conop_inst = conop.Conopology.Instance()
   builder = conop_inst.GetBuilder("DEFAULT")
diff --git a/modules/io/pymod/remote.py b/modules/io/pymod/remote.py
index 102cf680711ffafaeb98aab2c5f6a0aff082044d..aeb9bee0503b054bfc74007023826f554816bd54 100644
--- a/modules/io/pymod/remote.py
+++ b/modules/io/pymod/remote.py
@@ -50,7 +50,10 @@ class RemoteRepository:
 
     try:
       connection = urllib2.urlopen(remote_url)
-      status = connection.getcode()
+      if hasattr(connection, 'code'):
+        status = connection.code
+      else:
+        status = connection.getcode()
     except urllib2.HTTPError, e:
       status = e.code
     msg = 'Could not load %s from %s (status code %d)'