diff --git a/drivers/net/Kconfig b/drivers/net/Kconfig
index 51ef8a0f750a..8a835eb58808 100644
--- a/drivers/net/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/net/Kconfig
@@ -2540,7 +2540,7 @@ config SHAPER
 
 config NETCONSOLE
 	tristate "Network console logging support (EXPERIMENTAL)"
-	depends on INET && EXPERIMENTAL
+	depends on EXPERIMENTAL
 	---help---
 	If you want to log kernel messages over the network, enable this.
 	See <file:Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt> for details.
diff --git a/net/core/utils.c b/net/core/utils.c
index e11a8654f363..88eb8b68e26b 100644
--- a/net/core/utils.c
+++ b/net/core/utils.c
@@ -23,10 +23,10 @@
 #include <linux/percpu.h>
 #include <linux/init.h>
 
+#include <asm/byteorder.h>
 #include <asm/system.h>
 #include <asm/uaccess.h>
 
-
 /*
   This is a maximally equidistributed combined Tausworthe generator
   based on code from GNU Scientific Library 1.5 (30 Jun 2004)
@@ -153,3 +153,38 @@ int net_ratelimit(void)
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(net_random);
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(net_ratelimit);
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(net_srandom);
+
+/*
+ * Convert an ASCII string to binary IP.
+ * This is outside of net/ipv4/ because various code that uses IP addresses
+ * is otherwise not dependent on the TCP/IP stack.
+ */
+
+__u32 in_aton(const char *str)
+{
+	unsigned long l;
+	unsigned int val;
+	int i;
+
+	l = 0;
+	for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
+	{
+		l <<= 8;
+		if (*str != '\0')
+		{
+			val = 0;
+			while (*str != '\0' && *str != '.')
+			{
+				val *= 10;
+				val += *str - '0';
+				str++;
+			}
+			l |= val;
+			if (*str != '\0')
+				str++;
+		}
+	}
+	return(htonl(l));
+}
+
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(in_aton);
diff --git a/net/ipv4/Makefile b/net/ipv4/Makefile
index 5718cdb3a61e..55dc6cca1e7b 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/Makefile
+++ b/net/ipv4/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Makefile for the Linux TCP/IP (INET) layer.
 #
 
-obj-y     := utils.o route.o inetpeer.o protocol.o \
+obj-y     := route.o inetpeer.o protocol.o \
 	     ip_input.o ip_fragment.o ip_forward.o ip_options.o \
 	     ip_output.o ip_sockglue.o \
 	     tcp.o tcp_input.o tcp_output.o tcp_timer.o tcp_ipv4.o \
diff --git a/net/ipv4/utils.c b/net/ipv4/utils.c
deleted file mode 100644
index 6aecd7a43534..000000000000
--- a/net/ipv4/utils.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * INET		An implementation of the TCP/IP protocol suite for the LINUX
- *		operating system.  INET is implemented using the  BSD Socket
- *		interface as the means of communication with the user level.
- *
- *		Various kernel-resident INET utility functions; mainly
- *		for format conversion and debugging output.
- *
- * Version:	$Id: utils.c,v 1.8 2000/10/03 07:29:01 anton Exp $
- *
- * Author:	Fred N. van Kempen, <waltje@uWalt.NL.Mugnet.ORG>
- *
- * Fixes:
- *		Alan Cox	:	verify_area check.
- *		Alan Cox	:	removed old debugging.
- *		Andi Kleen	:	add net_ratelimit()  
- *
- *		This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
- *		modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
- *		as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
- *		2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
- */
-
-#include <linux/module.h>
-#include <linux/types.h>
-#include <asm/byteorder.h>
-
-/*
- *	Convert an ASCII string to binary IP. 
- */
- 
-__u32 in_aton(const char *str)
-{
-	unsigned long l;
-	unsigned int val;
-	int i;
-
-	l = 0;
-	for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) 
-	{
-		l <<= 8;
-		if (*str != '\0') 
-		{
-			val = 0;
-			while (*str != '\0' && *str != '.') 
-			{
-				val *= 10;
-				val += *str - '0';
-				str++;
-			}
-			l |= val;
-			if (*str != '\0') 
-				str++;
-		}
-	}
-	return(htonl(l));
-}
-
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(in_aton);