diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 5cb21e3ffc..22643b5b8c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -187,6 +187,11 @@ AC_COMPILE_IFELSE(
 CPPFLAGS="$ac_cppflags_save"
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_LIBXML_HTML, test "x$HAVE_LIBXML_HTML" = "xyes")
 
+dnl used in gst/tcp
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS([sys/socket.h],
+  HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H="yes", HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H="no")
+AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H, test "x$HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H" = "xyes")
+
 dnl used in gst-libs/gst/pbutils and associated unit test
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS([process.h sys/types.h sys/wait.h sys/stat.h])
 
diff --git a/gst/tcp/Makefile.am b/gst/tcp/Makefile.am
index 7c20dc661b..0882761e14 100644
--- a/gst/tcp/Makefile.am
+++ b/gst/tcp/Makefile.am
@@ -13,10 +13,17 @@ built_headers = gsttcp-enumtypes.h gsttcp-marshal.h
 
 BUILT_SOURCES = $(built_sources) $(built_headers)
 
+if HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H
+multifdsink_SOURCES = \
+	gstmultifdsink.c
+else
+multifdsink_SOURCES =
+endif
+
 libgsttcp_la_SOURCES = \
 	gsttcpplugin.c \
 	gsttcpclientsrc.c gsttcpclientsink.c \
-	gstmultifdsink.c  \
+	$(multifdsink_SOURCES) \
 	gstmultihandlesink.c  \
 	gstmultisocketsink.c  \
 	gsttcpserversrc.c gsttcpserversink.c
diff --git a/gst/tcp/gsttcpplugin.c b/gst/tcp/gsttcpplugin.c
index f2a5953db8..2496d19461 100644
--- a/gst/tcp/gsttcpplugin.c
+++ b/gst/tcp/gsttcpplugin.c
@@ -45,9 +45,11 @@ plugin_init (GstPlugin * plugin)
   if (!gst_element_register (plugin, "tcpserversrc", GST_RANK_NONE,
           GST_TYPE_TCP_SERVER_SRC))
     return FALSE;
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H
   if (!gst_element_register (plugin, "multifdsink", GST_RANK_NONE,
           GST_TYPE_MULTI_FD_SINK))
     return FALSE;
+#endif
   if (!gst_element_register (plugin, "multisocketsink", GST_RANK_NONE,
           GST_TYPE_MULTI_SOCKET_SINK))
     return FALSE;