diff --git a/src/network/address.rs b/src/network/address.rs
index 0d9e18d6..c813e885 100644
--- a/src/network/address.rs
+++ b/src/network/address.rs
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@
 //! network addresses in Bitcoin messages.
 //!
 
+use std::io;
 use std::fmt;
+use std::net::{SocketAddr, Ipv6Addr, SocketAddrV4, SocketAddrV6};
 
 use network::serialize::{SimpleEncoder, SimpleDecoder};
 use network::encodable::{ConsensusDecodable, ConsensusEncodable};
@@ -33,6 +35,38 @@ pub struct Address {
     pub port: u16
 }
 
+const ONION : [u16; 3] = [0xFD87, 0xD87E, 0xEB43];
+
+impl Address {
+    /// Create an address message for a socket
+    pub fn new (socket :&SocketAddr, services: u64) -> Address {
+        let (address, port) = match socket {
+            &SocketAddr::V4(ref addr) => (addr.ip().to_ipv6_mapped().segments(), addr.port()),
+            &SocketAddr::V6(ref addr) => (addr.ip().segments(), addr.port())
+        };
+        Address { address: address, port: port, services: services }
+    }
+
+    /// extract socket address from an address message
+    /// This will return io::Error ErrorKind::AddrNotAvailable if the message contains a Tor address.
+    pub fn socket_addr (&self) -> Result<SocketAddr, io::Error> {
+        let addr = &self.address;
+        if addr[0..3] == ONION {
+            return Err(io::Error::from(io::ErrorKind::AddrNotAvailable));
+        }
+        let ipv6 = Ipv6Addr::new(
+            addr[0],addr[1],addr[2],addr[3],
+            addr[4],addr[5],addr[6],addr[7]
+        );
+        if let Some(ipv4) = ipv6.to_ipv4() {
+            Ok(SocketAddr::V4(SocketAddrV4::new(ipv4, self.port)))
+        }
+        else {
+            Ok(SocketAddr::V6(SocketAddrV6::new(ipv6, self.port, 0, 0)))
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 fn addr_to_be(addr: [u16; 8]) -> [u16; 8] {
     [addr[0].to_be(), addr[1].to_be(), addr[2].to_be(), addr[3].to_be(),
      addr[4].to_be(), addr[5].to_be(), addr[6].to_be(), addr[7].to_be()]
@@ -88,7 +122,9 @@ impl Eq for Address {}
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod test {
+    use std::str::FromStr;
     use super::Address;
+    use std::net::{SocketAddr, IpAddr, Ipv4Addr, Ipv6Addr};
 
     use network::serialize::{deserialize, serialize};
 
@@ -110,6 +146,11 @@ mod test {
                                                        0, 1, 0x20, 0x8d]);
         assert!(addr.is_ok());
         let full = addr.unwrap();
+        assert!(match full.socket_addr().unwrap() {
+                    SocketAddr::V4(_) => true,
+                    _ => false
+                }
+            );
         assert_eq!(full.services, 1);
         assert_eq!(full.address, [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0xffff, 0x0a00, 0x0001]);
         assert_eq!(full.port, 8333);
@@ -118,5 +159,25 @@ mod test {
                              0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0xff, 0xff, 0x0a, 0, 0, 1]);
         assert!(addr.is_err());
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_socket_addr () {
+        let s4 = SocketAddr::new(IpAddr::V4(Ipv4Addr::new(111,222,123,4)), 5555);
+        let a4 = Address::new(&s4, 9);
+        assert_eq!(a4.socket_addr().unwrap(), s4);
+        let s6 = SocketAddr::new(IpAddr::V6(Ipv6Addr::new(0x1111, 0x2222, 0x3333, 0x4444,
+        0x5555, 0x6666, 0x7777, 0x8888)), 9999);
+        let a6 = Address::new(&s6, 9);
+        assert_eq!(a6.socket_addr().unwrap(), s6);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn onion_test () {
+        let onionaddr = SocketAddr::new(
+            IpAddr::V6(
+            Ipv6Addr::from_str("FD87:D87E:EB43:edb1:8e4:3588:e546:35ca").unwrap()), 1111);
+        let addr = Address::new(&onionaddr, 0);
+        assert!(addr.socket_addr().is_err());
+    }
 }