Index: XmlSettingsParser.java
===================================================================
--- XmlSettingsParser.java	(Revision 1579597)
+++ XmlSettingsParser.java	(Arbeitskopie)
@@ -21,10 +21,12 @@
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLConnection;
 import java.text.ParseException;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -482,7 +484,28 @@
             Message.verbose("loading properties: " + propFilePath);
             try {
                 URL fileUrl = urlFromFileAttribute(propFilePath);
-                ivy.loadProperties(fileUrl, override);
+                try {
+                    ivy.loadProperties(fileUrl, override);
+                } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
+                    throw ex;
+                } catch (IOException ex) {
+                    try {
+                        URLConnection connection = fileUrl.openConnection();
+                        if (connection instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
+                            int code = ((HttpURLConnection) connection).getResponseCode();
+                            if (code == 404) {
+                                // file does not exist, just log a warning like in the local file
+                                // case
+                                Message.verbose("Unable to download property file (404 not found): "
+                                        + propFilePath);
+                                return;
+                            }
+                        }
+                    } catch (Exception e) {
+                        // ignore all follow up errors and throw the original exception instead
+                    }
+                    throw ex;
+                }
             } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                 Message.verbose("Unable to find property file: " + propFilePath);
             }