diff --git a/.travis/install.xdrfile b/.travis/install.xdrfile
index e30bb5a312f9b3088f660a7f5036b0504f21dc98..f095dad7880d941e2ac1fd98b0ec862be54cc8cf 100755
--- a/.travis/install.xdrfile
+++ b/.travis/install.xdrfile
@@ -10,8 +10,10 @@ echo "installing xdrfile library"
 # xdrfile was removed from gromacs ftp
 # as a workaround I added a copy to people.sissa.it/~bussi/plumed
 # this complies with its license
+# wget people.sissa.it/~bussi/plumed/xdrfile-1.1.4.tar.gz
 
-wget people.sissa.it/~bussi/plumed/xdrfile-1.1.4.tar.gz
+# better to download from github, that should be even more reliable:
+wget https://github.com/plumed/other_packages/blob/master/xdrfile-1.1.4.tar.gz
 
 tar xzf xdrfile-1.1.4.tar.gz