diff --git a/scripts/check_pixels.py b/scripts/check_pixels.py
index 28581e3..9be7eeb 100644
--- a/scripts/check_pixels.py
+++ b/scripts/check_pixels.py
@@ -121,6 +121,8 @@ def main(argv):
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     parser.add_argument('object', help='Object:ID where Object is Screen, Plate, Project, Dataset, Image')
     # parser.add_argument('logfile', help='File path to output log')
+    parser.add_argument('--host', default="idr.openmicroscopy.org",
+                        help="Remote server that we want to check our local data against")
     parser.add_argument('--max-images', type=int, default=0,
                         help='Max number of images per FILESET. Default is to check ALL')
     parser.add_argument('--max-planes',
@@ -144,7 +146,7 @@ def main(argv):
 
         # Create connection to IDR server
         # NB: conn.connect() not working on IDR. Do it like this
-        idr_client = omero.client(host="idr.openmicroscopy.org", port=4064)
+        idr_client = omero.client(host=args.host, port=4064)
         idr_client.createSession('public', 'public')
         idr_conn = BlitzGateway(client_obj=idr_client)