diff --git a/includes/services/dns/check.inc b/includes/services/dns/check.inc
index 14bc151e0..d8fb11c2c 100644
--- a/includes/services/dns/check.inc
+++ b/includes/services/dns/check.inc
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 <?php
 
-$check = shell_exec($config['nagios_plugins'] . "/check_dns -H ".$service['param']." -s ".$service['hostname']);
+// provide some sane default
+if ($service['service_param']) { $nsquery = $service['service_param']; } else { $nsquery = "localhost"; }
+
+$check = shell_exec($config['nagios_plugins'] . "/check_dns -H ".$nsquery." -s ".$service['hostname']);
 
 list($check, $time) = split("\|", $check);
 
diff --git a/includes/services/mysql/check.inc b/includes/services/mysql/check.inc
index 4b4df4506..d63f36f9f 100644
--- a/includes/services/mysql/check.inc
+++ b/includes/services/mysql/check.inc
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 <?php
 
-$check = shell_exec($config['nagios_plugins'] . "/check_mysql -H ".$service['hostname']." ".$service['service_param']);
+// provide some sane default
+if ($service['service_param']) { $dbname = $service['service_param']; } else { $dbname = "mysql"; }
+
+$check = shell_exec($config['nagios_plugins'] . "/check_mysql -H ".$service['hostname']." ".$dbname);
 
 list($check, $time) = split("\|", $check);
 
diff --git a/versioncheck.php b/versioncheck.php
index ee7613e40..983ab03c9 100755
--- a/versioncheck.php
+++ b/versioncheck.php
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ include("includes/functions.php");
 $ports = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM ports"),0);
 $devices    = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM devices"),0);
 
-$dataHandle = fopen("http://www.observium.org/latest.php?i=$ports&d=$devices&v=".$config['version'], r);
+$dataHandle = fopen("http://www.observium.org/latest.php?i=$ports&d=$devices&v=".$config['version'], 'r');
 
 if ($dataHandle)
 {