diff --git a/lib/client.js b/lib/client.js
index d5f8e070..95cd9dd4 100644
--- a/lib/client.js
+++ b/lib/client.js
@@ -35,10 +35,13 @@ p.connect = function() {
   var self = this;
   this.stream.on('connect', function() {
     var data = ['user',self.user,'database', self.database, '\0'].join('\0');
-    var dataBuffer = Buffer(data, self.encoding);
-    var fullBuffer = Buffer(4 + dataBuffer.length);
-    self.writeInt32(fullBuffer, 0, 0x03);//write protocol version
-    dataBuffer.copy(fullBuffer, 4, 0);
+    var byteLength = Buffer.byteLength(data);
+    var fullBuffer = new Buffer(byteLength + 4);
+    fullBuffer[0] = 0;
+    fullBuffer[1] = 3;
+    fullBuffer[2] = 0;
+    fullBuffer[3] = 0;
+    fullBuffer.write(data, 4);
     self.send(null, fullBuffer);
   });