diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 952e243..fbf7a47 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -23,4 +23,5 @@ SystemRequirements: git, svn
 License: Artistic-2.0
 URL: https://github.com/gmbecker/switchr
 BugReports: https://github.com/gmbecker/switchr/issues
+Encoding: UTF-8
 RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
diff --git a/R/Utilities.R b/R/Utilities.R
index 23b0aeb..600fd07 100644
--- a/R/Utilities.R
+++ b/R/Utilities.R
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 
+.cran_path <- function() {
+  getOption("switchr_cran_mirror", "http://cran.r-project.org")
+}
+
 ## defaults to src
 
 .getExt = function(repourl = "./src/contrib", regex = FALSE) {
diff --git a/R/accessors.R b/R/accessors.R
index 3522c66..b3d241e 100644
--- a/R/accessors.R
+++ b/R/accessors.R
@@ -185,7 +185,6 @@ setMethod("dep_repos<-", "SessionManifest", function(x, value) {
 
 
 ##' @title Get or set the manifest associated with an object
-##' 
 ##'
 ##' @description Get or set manifest associated with an object
 ##'
diff --git a/R/crandbtmp.R b/R/crandbtmp.R
index a12dd1c..2f5f801 100644
--- a/R/crandbtmp.R
+++ b/R/crandbtmp.R
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ buildTarURLs = function(pkgvers, avail) {
     iscurrent[stillthere[currentpkgs]] = TRUE
 
     baseurl = ifelse(iscurrent, "http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib",
-        paste("http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive", names(pkgvers), sep="/")
+        paste(.cran_path(), "src/contrib/Archive", names(pkgvers), sep="/")
         )
     tarnames = paste0(names(pkgvers), "_", pkgvers, ".tar.gz")
     cranurls = paste(baseurl, tarnames, sep = "/")
diff --git a/R/manifestFromLib.R b/R/manifestFromLib.R
index d26d2d3..eac2040 100644
--- a/R/manifestFromLib.R
+++ b/R/manifestFromLib.R
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ setMethod("libManifest", "SwitchrCtx",
 ##' known_manifest and official repositories.
 ##' @param ... Currently unused.
 ##' @examples
-##' man = makeSeedMan()
+##' \dontrun{man = makeSeedMan()}
 ##' @export
 ##' @docType methods
 ##' @rdname makeSeedMan
diff --git a/R/retrievePkgVersion.R b/R/retrievePkgVersion.R
index 5b100d6..36c3c90 100644
--- a/R/retrievePkgVersion.R
+++ b/R/retrievePkgVersion.R
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ findPkgVersionInCRAN = function(name, version, param = SwitchrParam(), dir)
     
     tarname = paste0(name, "_", version, ".tar.gz")
     
-    cranurl = paste("http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive", name, tarname, sep = "/")
+    cranurl = paste(.cran_path(), "src/contrib/Archive", name, tarname, sep = "/")
     
     
     if(!file.exists(destpath))
diff --git a/inst/examples/crandb.R b/inst/examples/crandb.R
index 3065240..4e7325e 100644
--- a/inst/examples/crandb.R
+++ b/inst/examples/crandb.R
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ iscurrent = rep(FALSE, times=length(vers))
 iscurrent[stillthere[currentpkgs]] = TRUE
 
 baseurl = ifelse(iscurrent, "http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib",
-    paste("http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive", names(vers), sep="/")
+    paste(.cran_path(), "src/contrib/Archive", names(vers), sep="/")
     )
 cranurls = paste(baseurl, tarnames, sep = "/")
 
diff --git a/man/makeSeedMan.Rd b/man/makeSeedMan.Rd
index 0237aca..27af538 100644
--- a/man/makeSeedMan.Rd
+++ b/man/makeSeedMan.Rd
@@ -37,5 +37,5 @@ known_manifest and official repositories.}
 makeSeedMan
 }
 \examples{
-man = makeSeedMan()
+\dontrun{man = makeSeedMan()}
 }