diff --git a/src/mix_peer.rs b/src/mix_peer.rs
index 8aab5dda73..053961718d 100644
--- a/src/mix_peer.rs
+++ b/src/mix_peer.rs
@@ -9,11 +9,12 @@ pub struct MixPeer {
 impl MixPeer {
     // note that very soon `next_hop_address` will be changed to `next_hop_metadata`
     pub fn new(next_hop_address: [u8; 32]) -> MixPeer {
-        let address = String::from_utf8_lossy(&next_hop_address)
-            .trim_end_matches(char::from(0))
-            .to_string();
+        let b = next_hop_address;
+        let host = Ipv4Addr::new(b[0], b[1], b[2], b[3]);
+        let port: u16 = u16::from_be_bytes([b[4], b[5]]);
+        let socket_address = SocketAddrV4::new(host, port);
         MixPeer {
-            connection: address,
+            connection: socket_address,
         }
     }