diff --git a/lib/net.js b/lib/net.js
index 4b1450c8a59..498d777ee6c 100644
--- a/lib/net.js
+++ b/lib/net.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 var sys = require("sys");
 var fs = require("fs");
+var Utf8Decoder = require("utf8decoder").Utf8Decoder;
 var events = require("events");
 var dns = require('dns');
 
@@ -381,6 +382,8 @@ function initStream (self) {
 
           // Optimization: emit the original buffer with end points
           if (self.ondata) self.ondata(pool, start, end);
+        } else if (this._decoder) {
+          this._decoder.write(pool.slice(start, end));
         } else {
           var string = pool.toString(self._encoding, start, end);
           self.emit('data', string);
@@ -713,8 +716,17 @@ Stream.prototype._writeQueueLast = function () {
 
 
 Stream.prototype.setEncoding = function (enc) {
+  var self = this;
   // TODO check values, error out on bad, and deprecation message?
   this._encoding = enc.toLowerCase();
+  if (this._encoding == 'utf-8' || this._encoding == 'utf8') {
+    this._decoder = new Utf8Decoder();
+    this._decoder.onString = function(str) {
+      self.emit('data', str);
+    };
+  } else if (this._decoder) {
+    delete this._decoder;
+  }
 };