diff --git a/visidata/loaders/xlsx.py b/visidata/loaders/xlsx.py
index 834035d06..8fc462588 100644
--- a/visidata/loaders/xlsx.py
+++ b/visidata/loaders/xlsx.py
@@ -14,10 +14,12 @@
 
 @VisiData.api
 def open_xls(vd, p):
+    p.is_local() or vd.fail('xls loader does not support remote files')
     return XlsIndexSheet(p.base_stem, source=p)
 
 @VisiData.api
 def open_xlsx(vd, p):
+    p.is_local() or vd.fail('xlsx loader does not support remote files')
     return XlsxIndexSheet(p.base_stem, source=p)
 
 class XlsxIndexSheet(IndexSheet):
diff --git a/visidata/path.py b/visidata/path.py
index d272b8aa7..d5564b622 100644
--- a/visidata/path.py
+++ b/visidata/path.py
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@ def is_fifo(self):
 
     def is_local(self):
         'Return True if self.filename refers to a file on the local disk.'
-        return not bool(self.fp) and not bool(self.fptext)
+        return not bool(self.is_url()) and not bool(self.fp) and not bool(self.fptext)
 
     def is_url(self):
         'Return True if the given path appears to be a URL.'