diff --git a/src/common/remoteio.c b/src/common/remoteio.c
--- a/src/common/remoteio.c
+++ b/src/common/remoteio.c
@@ -23,15 +23,22 @@
 #include "asprintf.h"
 
 #include <errno.h>
+#ifndef _WIN32
 #include <netdb.h>
+#endif
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
+#ifdef _WIN32
+#include <winsock2.h>
+#include <ws2tcpip.h>
+#else
 #include <sys/socket.h>
+#endif
 #include <unistd.h>
 
-#ifndef WINDOWS
+#ifndef _WIN32
 #include <sys/un.h>
 #endif
 
@@ -44,7 +51,7 @@ int _remoteio_ssh_read(struct remoteio *
 int _remoteio_ssh_write(struct remoteio *rem, void *buf, size_t len, size_t *byteswritten);
 int _remoteio_ssh_close(struct remoteio *rem);
 
-#ifndef WINDOWS
+#ifndef _WIN32
 int _remoteio_sock_open(struct remoteio *rem, struct remoteio_server *server);
 int _remoteio_sock_close(struct remoteio *rem);
 #endif
@@ -64,7 +71,7 @@ struct remoteio_method_funcmap funcmap[]
   {
     /* [REMOTEIO_METHOD_SSH] */
     {REMOTEIO_METHOD_SSH, &_remoteio_ssh_open, &_remoteio_ssh_read, &_remoteio_ssh_write, &_remoteio_ssh_close, "ssh"},
-#ifndef WINDOWS
+#ifndef _WIN32
     {REMOTEIO_METHOD_UNIX, &_remoteio_sock_open, &_remoteio_sock_read, &_remoteio_sock_write, &_remoteio_sock_close, "unix"},
 #endif
     {REMOTEIO_METHOD_TCP, &_remoteio_tcp_open, &_remoteio_sock_read, &_remoteio_sock_write, &_remoteio_tcp_close, "tcp"},
@@ -277,7 +284,7 @@ int _remoteio_ssh_close(struct remoteio 
   return rtn;
 }
 
-#ifndef WINDOWS
+#ifndef _WIN32
 /*
   local sockets implementation (``named pipes''), unix-only
  */
@@ -285,6 +292,7 @@ int _remoteio_sock_open(struct remoteio 
 {
   int sock;
   struct sockaddr_un sockaddr;
+
   /*
     The POSIX docs pretty much say that I can't depend on sockpath being able to be longer than 
     some proprietary length. So, if the compiler specifies a long path for RUNSTATEDIR, it could
@@ -436,7 +444,12 @@ int _remoteio_tcp_open(struct remoteio *
 
   memset(&addrinfo_hints, '\0', sizeof(struct addrinfo));
   addrinfo_hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
+#ifdef _WIN32
+  /* windows lacks stuff documented in POSIX, I guess :-( */
+  addrinfo_hints.ai_flags = 0;
+#else
   addrinfo_hints.ai_flags = AI_V4MAPPED | AI_ADDRCONFIG;
+#endif
   addrinfo_hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
 
   tmp = getaddrinfo(server->hostname, port, &addrinfo_hints, &addrinfo_res);