diff --git a/src/players/admin.py b/src/players/admin.py
index bd7f41b838..8a4d8ff616 100644
--- a/src/players/admin.py
+++ b/src/players/admin.py
@@ -25,6 +25,13 @@ class CustomUserChangeForm(UserChangeForm):
                                 widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'size':'30'}),
                                 error_messages = {'invalid': "This value may contain only letters, spaces, numbers and @/./+/-/_ characters."},
                                 help_text = "30 characters or fewer. Letters, spaces, digits and @/./+/-/_ only.")
+    def clean_username(self):
+        username = self.cleaned_data['username']
+        if username.upper() == self.instance.username.upper():
+            return username
+        elif User.objects.filter(username__iexact=username):
+            raise forms.ValidationError('A player with that name already exists.')
+        return self.cleaned_data['username']
 
 class CustomUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):
     username = forms.RegexField(label="Username",
@@ -34,6 +41,13 @@ class CustomUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):
                                 error_messages = {'invalid': "This value may contain only letters, spaces, numbers and @/./+/-/_ characters."},
                                 help_text = "30 characters or fewer. Letters, spaces, digits and @/./+/-/_ only.")
 
+    def clean_username(self):
+        username = self.cleaned_data['username']
+        if User.objects.filter(username__iexact=username):
+            raise forms.ValidationError('A player with that name already exists.')
+        return username
+
+
 # # The Player editor
 # class PlayerAttributeForm(forms.ModelForm):
 #     "Defines how to display the atttributes"
@@ -127,20 +141,30 @@ class UserAdmin(BaseUserAdmin):
          {'fields': ('username', 'password1', 'password2', 'email'),
           'description':"<i>These account details are shared by the admin system and the game.</i>"},),)
 
+    def is_valid(self):
+        raise Exception
+        if not super(UserAdmin, self).is_valid():
+            return False
+        username = self.cleaned_data['username']
+        if self.instance and self.instance.username.upper() == username.upper():
+            return True
+        elif User.objects.filter(username__iexact=username):
+            raise ValidationError({'username' : 'A player with that name already exists.'})
+        return True
+
     def save_formset(self, request, form, formset, change):
         "Run all hooks on the player object"
         super(UserAdmin, self).save_formset(request, form, formset, change)
         userobj = form.instance
         playerobj = userobj.get_profile()
+        playerobj.name = userobj.username
         if not change:
             #uname, passwd, email = str(request.POST.get(u"username")), \
             #        str(request.POST.get(u"password1")), str(request.POST.get(u"email"))
             typeclass = str(request.POST.get(u"playerdb_set-0-db_typeclass_path"))
-
             create.create_player("","","",
                                  user=userobj,
                                  typeclass=typeclass,
-                                 player_dbobj=playerobj,
-                                 create_character=False)
+                                 player_dbobj=playerobj)
 
 admin.site.register(User, UserAdmin)
diff --git a/src/players/manager.py b/src/players/manager.py
index d7b7e2d840..9916928f51 100644
--- a/src/players/manager.py
+++ b/src/players/manager.py
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ class PlayerManager(TypedObjectManager):
     def get_player_from_name(self, uname):
         "Get player object based on name"
         try:
-            return self.get(user__username=uname)
+            return self.get(user__username__iexact=uname)
         except self.model.DoesNotExist:
             return None
 
diff --git a/src/settings_default.py b/src/settings_default.py
index 1bfbb889c4..f594413111 100644
--- a/src/settings_default.py
+++ b/src/settings_default.py
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ HTTP_LOG_FILE = os.path.join(LOG_DIR, 'http_requests.log')
 # Local time zone for this installation. All choices can be found here:
 # http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/interactive/datetime-keywords.html#DATETIME-TIMEZONE-SET-TABLE
 TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
+# Authentication backends. This is the code used to authenticate a user.
+AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = ('src.web.backends.CaseInsensitiveModelBackend',)
 # Language code for this installation. All choices can be found here:
 # http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html#langcodes
 LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
diff --git a/src/utils/create.py b/src/utils/create.py
index f009bf4245..07400fe040 100644
--- a/src/utils/create.py
+++ b/src/utils/create.py
@@ -432,9 +432,6 @@ def create_player(name, email, password,
      set any in this case.
 
     """
-    # The system should already have checked so the name/email
-    # isn't already registered, and that the password is ok before
-    # getting here.
     global _PlayerDB, _Player
     if not _PlayerDB:
         from src.players.models import PlayerDB as _PlayerDB
@@ -446,7 +443,17 @@ def create_player(name, email, password,
     if user:
         new_user = user
         email = user.email
+
+    if user:
+        conflict_check = User.objects.filter(username__iexact=user.username)
+        conflict_check = len(conflict_check) > 1 
     else:
+        conflict_check = User.objects.filter(username__iexact=name)
+
+    if conflict_check:
+        raise ValueError("A user with this name already exists.")
+
+    if not user:
         if is_superuser:
             new_user = User.objects.create_superuser(name, email, password)
         else:
diff --git a/src/web/backends.py b/src/web/backends.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..21c5f9a100
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/web/backends.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+from django.contrib.auth.backends import ModelBackend
+from django.contrib.auth.models import User
+
+class CaseInsensitiveModelBackend(ModelBackend):
+  """
+  By default ModelBackend does case _sensitive_ username authentication, which isn't what is
+  generally expected.  This backend supports case insensitive username authentication.
+  """
+  def authenticate(self, username=None, password=None):
+    try:
+      user = User.objects.get(username__iexact=username)
+      if user.check_password(password):
+        return user
+      else:
+        return None
+    except User.DoesNotExist:
+      return None