diff --git a/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/AbstractSolrConnector.java b/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/AbstractSolrConnector.java
index 74e811eaa..e1d3e3795 100644
--- a/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/AbstractSolrConnector.java
+++ b/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/AbstractSolrConnector.java
@@ -41,9 +41,17 @@ import org.apache.solr.common.SolrInputDocument;
 
 public class AbstractSolrConnector implements SolrConnector {
 
+    private final static SolrQuery catchallQuery = new SolrQuery();
+    static {
+    	catchallQuery.setQuery("*:*");
+    	catchallQuery.setFields(YaCySchema.id.name());
+    	catchallQuery.setRows(1);
+    	catchallQuery.setStart(0);
+    }
+    
     protected SolrServer server;
     protected int commitWithinMs; // max time (in ms) before a commit will happen
-
+    
     protected AbstractSolrConnector() {
         this.server = null;
         this.commitWithinMs = 180000;
@@ -90,8 +98,11 @@ public class AbstractSolrConnector implements SolrConnector {
     @Override
     public long getSize() {
         try {
-            final SolrDocumentList list = query("*:*", 0, 1);
-            return list.getNumFound();
+            final QueryResponse rsp = this.server.query(catchallQuery);
+            if (rsp == null) return 0;
+            final SolrDocumentList docs = rsp.getResults();
+            if (docs == null) return 0;
+            return docs.getNumFound();
         } catch (final Throwable e) {
             Log.logException(e);
             return 0;
diff --git a/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/RetrySolrConnector.java b/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/RetrySolrConnector.java
index 27418e14b..c8001e5dd 100644
--- a/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/RetrySolrConnector.java
+++ b/source/net/yacy/cora/services/federated/solr/RetrySolrConnector.java
@@ -173,6 +173,7 @@ public class RetrySolrConnector implements SolrConnector {
         while (System.currentTimeMillis() < t) try {
             return this.solrConnector.getSize();
         } catch (final Throwable e) {
+            try {Thread.sleep(10);} catch (final InterruptedException e1) {}
             continue;
         }
         return 0;
diff --git a/source/net/yacy/search/Switchboard.java b/source/net/yacy/search/Switchboard.java
index 889273084..3e1ec43c5 100644
--- a/source/net/yacy/search/Switchboard.java
+++ b/source/net/yacy/search/Switchboard.java
@@ -2930,8 +2930,9 @@ public final class Switchboard extends serverSwitch
             return "no DHT distribution: not enabled (per setting)";
         }
         final Segment indexSegment = this.index;
-        if ( indexSegment.urlMetadata().size() < 10 ) {
-            return "no DHT distribution: loadedURL.size() = " + indexSegment.urlMetadata().size();
+        int size = indexSegment.urlMetadata().size();
+        if ( size < 10 ) {
+            return "no DHT distribution: loadedURL.size() = " + size;
         }
         if ( indexSegment.termIndex().sizesMax() < 100 ) {
             return "no DHT distribution: not enough words - wordIndex.size() = "
diff --git a/source/net/yacy/search/solr/EmbeddedSolrConnector.java b/source/net/yacy/search/solr/EmbeddedSolrConnector.java
index 85988788d..5d4352a9d 100644
--- a/source/net/yacy/search/solr/EmbeddedSolrConnector.java
+++ b/source/net/yacy/search/solr/EmbeddedSolrConnector.java
@@ -114,7 +114,13 @@ public class EmbeddedSolrConnector extends AbstractSolrConnector implements Solr
     public SolrConfig getConfig() {
         return this.defaultCore.getSolrConfig();
     }
-
+    
+    @Override
+    public long getSize() {
+    	// do some magic here to prevent the super.getSize() call which is a bad hack
+    	return super.getSize();
+    }
+    
     @Override
     public synchronized void close() {
         super.close();