diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 573fc6b8..3a46ed78 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ update:
 	echo "remember that pymysql was tweaked"
 src:
 	### Use semantic versioning
-	echo 'Version 2.12.0-stable+timestamp.'`date +%Y.%m.%d.%H.%M.%S` > VERSION
+	echo 'Version 2.12.0-beta+timestamp.'`date +%Y.%m.%d.%H.%M.%S` > VERSION
 	### rm -f all junk files
 	make clean
 	### clean up baisc apps
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 6daa68b0..1a9c3ea1 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Version 2.12.0-stable+timestamp.2015.07.20.01.19.51
+Version 2.12.0-stable+timestamp.2015.07.30.10.03.50
diff --git a/gluon/contrib/login_methods/ldap_auth.py b/gluon/contrib/login_methods/ldap_auth.py
index 4f64cedb..e1a68bfd 100644
--- a/gluon/contrib/login_methods/ldap_auth.py
+++ b/gluon/contrib/login_methods/ldap_auth.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ def ldap_auth(server='ldap', port=None,
               group_name_attrib='cn',
               group_member_attrib='memberUid',
               group_filterstr='objectClass=*',
+              tls=False,
               logging_level='error'):
 
     """
@@ -80,6 +81,13 @@ def ldap_auth(server='ldap', port=None,
     If ldap is using GnuTLS then you need cert_file="..." instead cert_path
     because cert_path isn't implemented in GnuTLS :(
 
+    To enable TLS, set tls=True:
+
+        auth.settings.login_methods.append(ldap_auth(
+            server='my.ldap.server',
+            base_dn='ou=Users,dc=domain,dc=com',
+            tls=True))
+
     If you need to bind to the directory with an admin account in order to
     search it then specify bind_dn & bind_pw to use for this.
     - currently only implemented for Active Directory
@@ -610,6 +618,8 @@ def ldap_auth(server='ldap', port=None,
                 ldap_port = 389
             con = ldap.initialize(
                 "ldap://" + ldap_server + ":" + str(ldap_port))
+        if tls:
+            con.start_tls_s()
         return con
 
     def get_user_groups_from_ldap(username,