diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 6fd50d09..001488f5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ NEWS
   * fixed typecast of NULL on execl() (#1235)
   * fixed circumventing url.access-deny by trailing slash (#1230)
   * fixed crash on duplicate headers with trailing WS (#1232)
+  * fixed accepting more connections then requested (#1216)
 
 - 1.4.15 - 2007-04-13
 
diff --git a/src/connections.c b/src/connections.c
index 28e62798..2f715ef8 100644
--- a/src/connections.c
+++ b/src/connections.c
@@ -1252,6 +1252,16 @@ connection *connection_accept(server *srv, server_socket *srv_socket) {
 	socklen_t cnt_len;
 	/* accept it and register the fd */
 
+	/**
+	 * check if we can still open a new connections
+	 *
+	 * see #1216
+	 */
+
+	if (srv->conns->used >= srv->max_conns) {
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
 	cnt_len = sizeof(cnt_addr);
 
 	if (-1 == (cnt = accept(srv_socket->fd, (struct sockaddr *) &cnt_addr, &cnt_len))) {
@@ -1265,6 +1275,9 @@ connection *connection_accept(server *srv, server_socket *srv_socket) {
 		case ECONNABORTED: /* this is a FreeBSD thingy */
 			/* we were stopped _after_ we had a connection */
 			break;
+		case EMFILE:
+			/* out of fds */
+			break;
 		default:
 			log_error_write(srv, __FILE__, __LINE__, "ssd", "accept failed:", strerror(errno), errno);
 		}
diff --git a/src/server.c b/src/server.c
index 37b7cb48..7eaae3e7 100644
--- a/src/server.c
+++ b/src/server.c
@@ -775,6 +775,22 @@ int main (int argc, char **argv) {
 			return -1;
 		}
 
+		/**
+		 * we are not root can can't increase the fd-limit, but we can reduce it
+		 */
+		if (srv->srvconf.max_fds && srv->srvconf.max_fds < rlim.rlim_cur) {
+			/* set rlimits */
+
+			rlim.rlim_cur = srv->srvconf.max_fds;
+
+			if (0 != setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlim)) {
+				log_error_write(srv, __FILE__, __LINE__,
+						"ss", "couldn't set 'max filedescriptors'",
+						strerror(errno));
+				return -1;
+			}
+		}
+
 		if (srv->event_handler == FDEVENT_HANDLER_SELECT) {
 			srv->max_fds = rlim.rlim_cur < FD_SETSIZE - 200 ? rlim.rlim_cur : FD_SETSIZE - 200;
 		} else {