diff --git a/netlib/utils.py b/netlib/utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ea7495451
--- /dev/null
+++ b/netlib/utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+
+def cleanBin(s, fixspacing=False):
+    """
+        Cleans binary data to make it safe to display. If fixspacing is True,
+        tabs, newlines and so forth will be maintained, if not, they will be
+        replaced with a placeholder.
+    """
+    parts = []
+    for i in s:
+        o = ord(i)
+        if (o > 31 and o < 127):
+            parts.append(i)
+        elif i in "\n\r\t" and not fixspacing:
+            parts.append(i)
+        else:
+            parts.append(".")
+    return "".join(parts)
+
+
+def hexdump(s):
+    """
+        Returns a set of tuples:
+            (offset, hex, str)
+    """
+    parts = []
+    for i in range(0, len(s), 16):
+        o = "%.10x"%i
+        part = s[i:i+16]
+        x = " ".join("%.2x"%ord(i) for i in part)
+        if len(part) < 16:
+            x += " "
+            x += " ".join("  " for i in range(16 - len(part)))
+        parts.append(
+            (o, x, cleanBin(part, True))
+        )
+    return parts
diff --git a/test/test_utils.py b/test/test_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..61820a810
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+from netlib import utils
+
+
+def test_hexdump():
+    assert utils.hexdump("one\0"*10)
+
+
+def test_cleanBin():
+    assert utils.cleanBin("one") == "one"
+    assert utils.cleanBin("\00ne") == ".ne"
+    assert utils.cleanBin("\nne") == "\nne"
+    assert utils.cleanBin("\nne", True) == ".ne"
+