diff --git a/auth/shibboleth/README.txt b/auth/shibboleth/README.txt
index 75baf634445..69736d01618 100644
--- a/auth/shibboleth/README.txt
+++ b/auth/shibboleth/README.txt
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ Changes:
 - 05. 2005: Various extensions and fixes by Lukas Haemmerle
 - 06. 2005: Adaptions to new field locks and plugin config structures by Marting
             Langhoff and Lukas Haemmerle
+- 10. 2005: Added better error messages and moved text to language directories
 
 Moodle Configuration with Dual login
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -151,7 +152,6 @@ Example file:
         // institution, street, zipcode, city and country
         $address = $_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_address];
         list($institution, $street, $zip_city) = split('\$', $address);
-        
         ereg(' (.+)',$zip_city, $regs);
         $city = $regs[1];
         
@@ -168,8 +168,7 @@ Example file:
 
 Bugs
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The current implementation has not yet been extensively tested. So there may be
-bugs. Please send bug reports concerning the Shibboleth part to 
+Please send bug reports concerning the Shibboleth part to 
 Lukas Haemmerle <haemmerle@switch.ch>
 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/auth/shibboleth/index.php b/auth/shibboleth/index.php
index ef2cca021e9..0769d4ce69f 100644
--- a/auth/shibboleth/index.php
+++ b/auth/shibboleth/index.php
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@
 
     // Check whether Shibboleth is configured properly
     if (empty($pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute)) {
-        error('Shibboleth authentication (\'shib_user_attribute\') is not set up correctly. You probably haven\'t yet configured the Shibboleth authentication. Please consult the README in moodle/auth/shibboleth for further instructions on how to set up Shibboleth authentication.');
-    }
+        error(get_string( 'shib_not_set_up_error', 'auth'));
+     }
 
 /// If we can find the Shibboleth attribute, save it in session and return to main login page
     if (!empty($_SERVER[$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute])) {    // Shibboleth auto-login
@@ -50,7 +50,16 @@
 
             redirect($urltogo);
         }
+    } 
+    
+    // If we can find any (user independent) Shibboleth attributes but no user 
+    // attributes we probably didn't receive any user attributes
+    if ( !empty($_SERVER['HTTP_SHIB_APPLICATION_ID'])
+    	 && empty($_SERVER[$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute]))
+    {
+        error(get_string( 'shib_no_attributes_error', 'auth' , '\''.$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute.'\', \''.$pluginconfig->field_map_firstname.'\', \''.$pluginconfig->field_map_lastname.'\' and \''.$pluginconfig->field_map_email.'\''));
     }
+    
 
     $SESSION->shibboleth_checked = true;   // This will stop us bouncing back here
 
diff --git a/auth/shibboleth/lib.php b/auth/shibboleth/lib.php
index e6e288922cc..4a1ab72e56b 100755
--- a/auth/shibboleth/lib.php
+++ b/auth/shibboleth/lib.php
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ function auth_get_userinfo($username) {
 // reads user information from shibboleth attributes and return it in array()
     global $CFG;
 
-    $config = (array)$CFG;
     $pluginconfig   = get_config('auth/shibboleth');
 
     // Check whether we have got all the essential attributes
@@ -36,7 +35,7 @@ function auth_get_userinfo($username) {
         || empty($_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_lastname])
         || empty($_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_email])
         ) {
-        error("Moodle needs certain Shibboleth attributes which are not present in your case. The attributes are: '".$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute]."'), '".$pluginconfig->field_map_firstname."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_firstname]."'), '".$pluginconfig->field_map_lastname."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_lastname]."') and '".$pluginconfig->field_map_email."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_email]."')<br>Please contact your Identity Service Provider.");
+        error(get_string( 'shib_not_all_attributes_error', 'auth' , "'".$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->shib_user_attribute]."'), '".$pluginconfig->field_map_firstname."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_firstname]."'), '".$pluginconfig->field_map_lastname."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_lastname]."') and '".$pluginconfig->field_map_email."' ('".$_SERVER[$pluginconfig->field_map_email]."')"));
     }
 
     $attrmap = auth_shib_attributes();
@@ -47,18 +46,18 @@ function auth_get_userinfo($username) {
     foreach ($attrmap as $key=>$value) {
         $result[$key]=utf8_decode($_SERVER[$value]);
     }
-    
+
      // Provide an API to modify the information to fit the Moodle internal
     // data representation
     if (   
-          $config["shib_convert_data"] 
-          && $config["shib_convert_data"] != ''
-          && is_readable($config["shib_convert_data"])
+          $pluginconfig->convert_data 
+          && $pluginconfig->convert_data != ''
+          && is_readable($pluginconfig->convert_data)
         ){
         
         // Include a custom file outside the Moodle dir to
         // modify the variable $moodleattributes
-        include($config["shib_convert_data"]);
+        include($pluginconfig->convert_data);
     }
     
     return $result;
@@ -68,7 +67,6 @@ function auth_shib_attributes(){
 //returns array containg attribute mappings between Moodle and shibboleth
 	global $CFG;
 
-    $config = (array)$CFG;
     $pluginconfig   = get_config('auth/shibboleth');
     $pluginconfig   = (array) $pluginconfig;
 
@@ -82,7 +80,7 @@ function auth_shib_attributes(){
             $moodleattributes[$field] = $pluginconfig["field_map_$field"];
         }
     }
-    $moodleattributes['username']=$config["shib_user_attribute"];
+    $moodleattributes['username']=$pluginconfig["shib_user_attribute"];
 
 	return $moodleattributes;
 }
diff --git a/auth/shibboleth/shib-protected.php b/auth/shibboleth/shib-protected.php
index 396e8e860a2..a3a9dfd944a 100755
--- a/auth/shibboleth/shib-protected.php
+++ b/auth/shibboleth/shib-protected.php
@@ -1,6 +1,19 @@
 <?php
-// This file must be Shibboleth protected
-// Consult the README for further instructions
+/* 
+This file must be Shibboleth protected with something like:
+
+--
+<Location ~  "/auth/shibboleth/shib-protected.php">
+        AuthType shibboleth
+        ShibRequireSession On
+        require valid-user
+</Location>
+--
+
+in your web server configuration.
+
+Consult moodle/auth/shibboleth/README.txt for further instructions.
+*/
 
 require_once("../../config.php");
 header("Location: ".$CFG->wwwroot."/auth/shibboleth/");