diff --git a/config/rootrc.in b/config/rootrc.in
index 1533383e3f314ffe47180defeb651f5d510d4383..3712abd8b9e0d76546e7416f7d2e18ea9c739aa5 100644
--- a/config/rootrc.in
+++ b/config/rootrc.in
@@ -684,6 +684,10 @@ Rint.Canvas.HighLightColor:      5
 # with all the goodies (session caching, flexible authentication, support
 # for different dialects like S3, and others)
 
+# Use old TWebFile as long as Davix is experimental
+# Davix.UseOldClient: @useoldwebfile@
+Davix.UseOldClient: yes
+
 # Verbosity level of the external Davix library
 # Davix.Debug: 0
 
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 6705b2780ab7ca4ae8b600373c3c3b2c2e663f5c..e36bbb018e3fb5c7375c6eefe3d173fe4715d8ea 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -4186,6 +4186,7 @@ check_explicit "$enable_dcache" "$enable_dcache_explicit" \
 #
 ### echo %%% DavIx Support - Third party libraries
 #
+useoldwebfile="yes"
 if test ! "x$enable_davix" = "xno" ; then
     check_header "davix.hpp" "$davixincdir" \
         $DAVIX ${DAVIX:+$DAVIX/include/davix} \
@@ -4194,8 +4195,8 @@ if test ! "x$enable_davix" = "xno" ; then
     davixincdir=$found_dir
 
     check_library "libdavix" "$enable_shared" "$davixlibdir" \
-        $DAVIX ${DAVIX:+$DAVIX/lib} ${DAVIX:+$DAVIX/lib64} \
-        /usr/lib /usr/lib64 /usr/local/lib64
+        $DAVIX ${DAVIX:+$DAVIX/lib} \
+        /usr/lib /usr/local
     davixlib=$found_lib
     davixlibdir=$found_dir
 
@@ -4211,6 +4212,8 @@ if test ! "x$enable_davix" = "xno" ; then
 
     if test "x$davixincdir" = "x" || test "x$davixlib" = "x"; then
         enable_davix="no"
+    else
+        useoldwebfile="no"
     fi
 fi
 check_explicit "$enable_davix" "$enable_davix_explicit" \
@@ -7554,6 +7557,7 @@ sed -e "s|@libdir@|$libdir|"               \
     -e "s|@iconpath@|$iconpath|"           \
     -e "s|@hasxrd@|$hasxrd|"               \
     -e "s|@hasnotxrd@|$hasnotxrd|"         \
+    -e "s|@useoldwebfile@|$useoldwebfile|" \
     -e "s|@useoldnetx@|$useoldnetx|"       \
    < rootrc.tmp > $ROOTRCOUT
 rm -f rootrc.tmp
diff --git a/etc/plugins/TFile/P130_TDavixFile.C b/etc/plugins/TFile/P130_TDavixFile.C
index cd18b52f01c386539c4f04fc15a5707e91b92461..3c152b686717076f864d2f36045dfe7c078ed1ca 100644
--- a/etc/plugins/TFile/P130_TDavixFile.C
+++ b/etc/plugins/TFile/P130_TDavixFile.C
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ void P130_TDavixFile()
    TString configfeatures = gROOT->GetConfigFeatures();
 
    // only if ROOT was compiled with davix enabled do we configure a handler
-   if ( configfeatures.Contains("davix") ) {
+   if (configfeatures.Contains("davix") &&
+       !gEnv->GetValue("Davix.UseOldClient", 0)) {
 
       gPluginMgr->AddHandler("TFile", "^http[s]?:", "TDavixFile",
       "RDAVIX", "TDavixFile(const char*, Option_t *, const char *,Int_t)");
@@ -14,7 +15,5 @@ void P130_TDavixFile()
       gPluginMgr->AddHandler("TFile", "^s3[s]?:", "TDavixFile",
       "RDAVIX", "TDavixFile(const char*, Option_t *, const char *,Int_t)");
 
-   } else {
-      //Error("P130_TDavixFile","Please fix your ROOT config to be able to load libdavix.so");
    }
 }
diff --git a/etc/plugins/TSystem/P045_TDavixSystem.C b/etc/plugins/TSystem/P045_TDavixSystem.C
index ac7f50cd875f884ee0991584da15b88f4a4751af..2c2b54be1095958309dcd7f8037f6273ad177906 100644
--- a/etc/plugins/TSystem/P045_TDavixSystem.C
+++ b/etc/plugins/TSystem/P045_TDavixSystem.C
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ void P045_TDavixSystem()
    TString configfeatures = gROOT->GetConfigFeatures();
 
    // only if ROOT was compiled with davix enabled do we configure a handler
-   if ( configfeatures.Contains("davix") ) {
+   if (configfeatures.Contains("davix") &&
+       !gEnv->GetValue("Davix.UseOldClient", 0)) {
 
       gPluginMgr->AddHandler("TSystem", "^http[s]?:", "TDavixSystem",
          "RDAVIX", "TDavixSystem()");
@@ -14,7 +15,5 @@ void P045_TDavixSystem()
       gPluginMgr->AddHandler("TSystem", "^s3[s]?:", "TDavixSystem",
          "RDAVIX", "TDavixSystem()");
 
-   } else {
-      //Error("P045_TDavixSystem","Please fix your ROOT config to be able to load libdavix.so");
    }
 }