diff --git a/domain-server/src/DomainServerNodeData.cpp b/domain-server/src/DomainServerNodeData.cpp
index fd95ea9a67..43bf36014a 100644
--- a/domain-server/src/DomainServerNodeData.cpp
+++ b/domain-server/src/DomainServerNodeData.cpp
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #include <QtCore/QJsonObject>
 #include <QtCore/QVariant>
 
+#include <JSONBreakableMarshal.h>
 #include <PacketHeaders.h>
 
 #include "DomainServerNodeData.h"
@@ -31,16 +32,9 @@ DomainServerNodeData::DomainServerNodeData() :
 }
 
 void DomainServerNodeData::parseJSONStatsPacket(const QByteArray& statsPacket) {
-    // push past the packet header
-    QDataStream packetStream(statsPacket);
-    packetStream.skipRawData(numBytesForPacketHeader(statsPacket));
+    QJsonObject packetJson = JSONBreakableMarshal::fromStringBuffer(statsPacket.mid(numBytesForPacketHeader(statsPacket)));
     
-    QVariantMap unpackedVariantMap;
-    
-    packetStream >> unpackedVariantMap;
-    
-    QJsonObject unpackedStatsJSON = QJsonObject::fromVariantMap(unpackedVariantMap);
-    _statsJSONObject = mergeJSONStatsFromNewObject(unpackedStatsJSON, _statsJSONObject);
+    // _statsJSONObject = mergeJSONStatsFromNewObject(unpackedStatsJSON, _statsJSONObject);
 }
 
 QJsonObject DomainServerNodeData::mergeJSONStatsFromNewObject(const QJsonObject& newObject, QJsonObject destinationObject) {
diff --git a/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.cpp b/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.cpp
index f620d53be3..67125606ed 100644
--- a/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.cpp
+++ b/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.cpp
@@ -96,3 +96,33 @@ QString JSONBreakableMarshal::toString(const QJsonValue& jsonValue, const QStrin
 
     return QString("%1=%2").arg(keypath, valueAsString);
 }
+
+QJsonObject JSONBreakableMarshal::fromStringBuffer(const QByteArray& buffer) {
+    QJsonObject result;
+    
+    // this is a packet of strings sep by null terminators - pull out each string and create a stringlist
+    QStringList packetList;
+    int currentIndex = 0;
+    int currentSeparator = buffer.indexOf('\0');
+    
+    while (currentIndex < buffer.size() - 1) {
+        packetList << QString::fromUtf8(buffer.mid(currentIndex, currentSeparator));
+
+        if (currentSeparator == -1) {
+            // no more separators to be found, break out of here so we're not looping for nothing
+            break;
+        }
+        
+        // bump the currentIndex up to the last found separator
+        currentIndex = currentSeparator + 1;
+
+        // find the index of the next separator, assuming this one wasn't the last one in the packet
+        if (currentSeparator < buffer.size() - 1) {
+            currentSeparator = buffer.indexOf('\0', currentIndex); 
+        }
+    }
+
+
+
+    return result;
+}
diff --git a/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.h b/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.h
index 11d2072ee2..28e305902a 100644
--- a/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.h
+++ b/libraries/networking/src/JSONBreakableMarshal.h
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ class JSONBreakableMarshal {
 public:
     static QStringList toStringList(const QJsonValue& jsonValue, const QString& keypath);
     static QString toString(const QJsonValue& jsonValue, const QString& keyPath); 
+    static QJsonObject fromStringBuffer(const QByteArray& buffer);
 };
 
 #endif // hifi_JSONBreakableMarshal_h
diff --git a/libraries/networking/src/NodeList.cpp b/libraries/networking/src/NodeList.cpp
index d6fe311c59..04ae1b0b2b 100644
--- a/libraries/networking/src/NodeList.cpp
+++ b/libraries/networking/src/NodeList.cpp
@@ -78,7 +78,8 @@ qint64 NodeList::sendStats(const QJsonObject& statsObject, const HifiSockAddr& d
     
     // enumerate the resulting strings - pack them and send off packets once we hit MTU size 
     foreach(const QString& statsItem, statsStringList) {
-        QByteArray utf8String = statsItem.toUtf8(); 
+        QByteArray utf8String = statsItem.toUtf8();
+        utf8String.append('\0');
 
         if (numBytesWritten + utf8String.size() > MAX_PACKET_SIZE) {
             // send off the current packet since the next string will make us too big