diff --git a/avatar-mixer/src/main.cpp b/avatar-mixer/src/main.cpp
index 0b8ebe5653..875dda42e6 100644
--- a/avatar-mixer/src/main.cpp
+++ b/avatar-mixer/src/main.cpp
@@ -58,12 +58,9 @@ int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
     
     agentList->linkedDataCreateCallback = attachAvatarDataToAgent;
     
-    agentList->startDomainServerCheckInThread();
     agentList->startSilentAgentRemovalThread();
-    agentList->startPingUnknownAgentsThread();
     
     sockaddr *agentAddress = new sockaddr;
-    sockaddr_in* agentAddressIn;
     unsigned char *packetData = new unsigned char[MAX_PACKET_SIZE];
     ssize_t receivedBytes = 0;
     
@@ -77,6 +74,11 @@ int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
         if (agentList->getAgentSocket().receive(agentAddress, packetData, &receivedBytes)) {
             switch (packetData[0]) {
                 case PACKET_HEADER_HEAD_DATA:
+                    // add this agent if we don't have them yet
+                    if (agentList->addOrUpdateAgent(agentAddress, agentAddress, packetData[0], agentList->getLastAgentId())) {
+                        agentList->increaseAgentId();
+                    }
+                    
                     // this is positional data from an agent
                     agentList->updateAgentWithData(agentAddress, packetData, receivedBytes);
                     
@@ -106,9 +108,7 @@ int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
         }
     }
     
-    agentList->stopDomainServerCheckInThread();
     agentList->stopSilentAgentRemovalThread();
-    agentList->stopPingUnknownAgentsThread();
     
     return 0;
 }
diff --git a/libraries/shared/src/AgentList.cpp b/libraries/shared/src/AgentList.cpp
index 2c7d6cf25d..be5e8155b8 100644
--- a/libraries/shared/src/AgentList.cpp
+++ b/libraries/shared/src/AgentList.cpp
@@ -253,7 +253,9 @@ bool AgentList::addOrUpdateAgent(sockaddr *publicSocket, sockaddr *localSocket,
             // to use the local socket information the domain server gave us
             sockaddr_in *publicSocketIn = (sockaddr_in *)publicSocket;
             audioMixerSocketUpdate(publicSocketIn->sin_addr.s_addr, publicSocketIn->sin_port);
-        } else if (newAgent->getType() == AGENT_TYPE_VOXEL) {
+        } else if (newAgent->getType() == AGENT_TYPE_VOXEL || newAgent->getType() == AGENT_TYPE_AVATAR_MIXER) {
+            // this is currently the cheat we use to talk directly to our test servers on EC2
+            // to be removed when we have a proper identification strategy
             newAgent->activatePublicSocket();
         }