diff --git a/app/controllers/unattended_controller.rb b/app/controllers/unattended_controller.rb
index 1dfe073..106bfec 100644
--- a/app/controllers/unattended_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/unattended_controller.rb
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ class UnattendedController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def preseed
-    @preseed_path   = @host.os.preseed_path   @host.media
-    @preseed_server = @host.os.preseed_server @host.media
+    @preseed_path   = @host.os.preseed_path   @host
+    @preseed_server = @host.os.preseed_server @host
     unattended_local "preseed"
   end
 
diff --git a/app/models/media.rb b/app/models/media.rb
index 82c5db0..6026e3a 100644
--- a/app/models/media.rb
+++ b/app/models/media.rb
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@ class Media < ActiveRecord::Base
   validates_uniqueness_of :path, :scope => :operatingsystem_id
   validates_presence_of :name, :path
   validates_format_of :name, :with => /\A(\S+\s?)+\Z/, :message => "can't be blank or contain trailing white spaces."
-  validates_format_of :path, :with => /^((http|ftp):\/\/)|\w+:\/\w+/,
-    :message => "Url (http:// or ftp://) or a NFS share area allowed (e.g. server:/vol/dir)"
+  validates_format_of :path, :with => /^(http|https|ftp|nfs):\/\//,
+    :message => "Only URLs with schema http://, https://, ftp:// or nfs:// are allowed (e.g. nfs://server/vol/dir)"
 
   alias_attribute :os, :operatingsystem
   before_destroy Ensure_not_used_by.new(:hosts)
diff --git a/app/views/medias/_form.html.erb b/app/views/medias/_form.html.erb
index 70f96d8..ed730dd 100644
--- a/app/views/medias/_form.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/medias/_form.html.erb
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
   </p >
   <small>
     The path to the media, can be a URL or a valid NFS server (exclusive of the architecture).<br />
-    for example http://mirror.averse.net/centos/6.0/os/$arch where <b>$arch</b> will be substituted for the host actual OS architecture.
+    for example http://mirror.averse.net/centos/$version/os/$arch where <strong>$arch</strong> will be substituted for the host's actual OS architecture<br />
+    and <strong>$version</strong>, <strong>$major</strong> and <strong>$minor</strong> will be substituted for the version of the operating system.
   </small>
   <p>
   <%= f.label :operatingsystem_id %><br />
diff --git a/lib/family.rb b/lib/family.rb
index f5f25cb..d10a8b2 100644
--- a/lib/family.rb
+++ b/lib/family.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # Adds operatingsystem family behaviour to the Operatingsystem class
 # The variant is calculated at run-time
 require 'ostruct'
+require 'uri'
+
 module Family
   # NEVER, EVER reorder this list. Additions are allowed but offsets are encoded in the database
   FAMILIES  = [:Debian, :RedHat, :Solaris]
@@ -12,16 +14,23 @@ module Family
     FAMILIES.map{|e| OpenStruct.new(:name => e, :value => FAMILIES.index(e)) }
   end
 
+  def media_uri host
+    URI.parse(host.media.path.gsub('$arch',host.architecture.name).
+                              gsub('$major', host.os.major).
+                              gsub('$minor', host.os.minor).
+                              gsub('$version', [ host.os.major, host.os.minor ].compact.join('.'))
+    ).normalize
+  end
+
   module Debian
     include Family
 
-    def preseed_server media
-      media.path.match('^(\w+):\/\/((\w|\.)+)((\w|\/)+)$')[2]
+    def preseed_server host
+      media_uri(host).select(:host, :port).compact.join(':')
     end
 
-    #TODO: rethink of a more generic way
-    def preseed_path media
-      media.path.match('^(\w+):\/\/((\w|\.)+)((\w|\/)+)$')[4]
+    def preseed_path host
+      media_uri(host).select(:path, :query).compact.join('?')
     end
   end
 
@@ -30,11 +39,18 @@ module Family
     # outputs kickstart installation media based on the media type (NFS or URL)
     # it also convert the $arch string to the current host architecture
     def mediapath host
-      server, dir  = host.media.path.split(":")
-      dir.gsub!('$arch',host.architecture.name)
+      uri = media_uri(host)
+      server = uri.select(:host, :port).compact.join(':')
+      dir = uri.select(:path, :query).compact.join('?')
 
-      return server =~ /^(h|f)t*p$/ ? "url --url #{server+":"+dir}" : "nfs --server #{server} --dir #{dir}"
+      case uri.scheme
+        when 'http', 'https', 'ftp'
+           "url --url #{uri.to_s}"
+        else
+          "nfs --server #{server} --dir #{dir}"
+      end
     end
+
     def epel arch
       ["4","5"].include?(major) ? "su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/#{major}/#{arch}/epel-release-#{to_version}.noarch.rpm'" : ""
     end