diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/HttpSecurityBeanDefinitionParser.java b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/HttpSecurityBeanDefinitionParser.java
index 1f90aa86ff..36e9ef6f1b 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/HttpSecurityBeanDefinitionParser.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/HttpSecurityBeanDefinitionParser.java
@@ -414,7 +414,10 @@ public class HttpSecurityBeanDefinitionParser implements BeanDefinitionParser {
         	return;        	
         }
         
-        throw new IllegalStateException("Couldn't set entry point");
+        parserContext.getReaderContext().error("No AuthenticationEntryPoint could be established. Please" +
+        		"make sure you have a login mechanism configured through the namespace (such as form-login) or" +
+        		"specify a custom AuthenticationEntryPoint with the custom-entry-point-ref  ", 
+                parserContext.extractSource(element));
     }
     
     static UrlMatcher createUrlMatcher(Element element) {
diff --git a/samples/cas/client/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext-security.xml b/samples/cas/client/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext-security.xml
index c852ab3560..ebf15f93c6 100644
--- a/samples/cas/client/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext-security.xml
+++ b/samples/cas/client/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext-security.xml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd
                         http://www.springframework.org/schema/security http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-2.0.xsd">
-    <sec:http>
+    <sec:http entry-point-ref="casProcessingFilterEntryPoint">
         <sec:intercept-url pattern="/secure/extreme/**" access="ROLE_SUPERVISOR" requires-channel="https"/>
         <sec:intercept-url pattern="/secure/**" access="ROLE_USER" />
         <sec:logout />
@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@
 
     <bean id="casAuthenticationProvider" class="org.springframework.security.providers.cas.CasAuthenticationProvider">
         <sec:custom-authentication-provider />
-        <property name="userDetailsService" ref="userService"/>
+        <property name="userDetailsService" ref="userService"/>
         <property name="serviceProperties" ref="serviceProperties" />
-        <property name="ticketValidator">
-        	<bean class="org.jasig.cas.client.validation.Cas20ServiceTicketValidator">
+        <property name="ticketValidator">
+        	<bean class="org.jasig.cas.client.validation.Cas20ServiceTicketValidator">
         		<constructor-arg index="0" value="https://localhost:9443/cas" />
             </bean>
         </property>