diff --git a/tests/testlib.py b/tests/testlib.py
index fb6e55e9..75494ef7 100644
--- a/tests/testlib.py
+++ b/tests/testlib.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 
 import os
 import random
+import re
+import socket
 import sys
+import time
 import unittest
 import urlparse
 
@@ -27,6 +30,75 @@ def data_path(suffix):
     return path
 
 
+def wait_for_port(
+        host,
+        port,
+        pattern=None,
+        connect_timeout=0.5,
+        receive_timeout=0.5,
+        overall_timeout=5.0,
+        sleep=0.1,
+        ):
+    """Attempt to connect to host/port, for upto overall_timeout seconds.
+    If a regex pattern is supplied try to find it in the initial data.
+    Return None on success, or raise on error.
+    """
+    start = time.time()
+    end = start + overall_timeout
+    addr = (host, port)
+
+    while time.time() < end:
+        sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+        sock.settimeout(connect_timeout)
+        try:
+            sock.connect(addr)
+        except socket.error:
+            # Failed to connect. So wait then retry.
+            time.sleep(sleep)
+            continue
+
+        if not pattern:
+            # Success: We connected & there's no banner check to perform.
+            sock.shutdown(socket.SHUTD_RDWR)
+            sock.close()
+            return
+
+        sock.settimeout(receive_timeout)
+        data = ''
+        found = False
+        while time.time() < end:
+            try:
+                resp = sock.recv(1024)
+            except socket.timeout:
+                # Server stayed up, but had no data. Retry the recv().
+                continue
+
+            if not resp:
+                # Server went away. Wait then retry the connection.
+                time.sleep(sleep)
+                break
+
+            data += resp
+            if re.search(pattern, data):
+                found = True
+                break
+
+        sock.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
+        sock.close()
+
+        if found:
+            # Success: We received the banner & found the desired pattern
+            return
+    else:
+        # Failure: The overall timeout expired
+        if pattern:
+            raise socket.timeout('Timed out while searching for %r from %s:%s'
+                                 % (pattern, host, port))
+        else:
+            raise socket.timeout('Timed out while connecting to %s:%s'
+                                 % (host, port))
+
+
 class TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     def assertRaises(self, exc, func, *args, **kwargs):
         """Like regular assertRaises, except return the exception that was
@@ -61,6 +133,9 @@ class DockerizedSshDaemon(object):
         parsed = urlparse.urlparse(self.docker.api.base_url)
         return parsed.netloc.partition(':')[0]
 
+    def wait_for_sshd(self):
+        wait_for_port(self.get_host(), int(self.port), pattern='OpenSSH')
+
     def close(self):
         self.container.stop()
         self.container.remove()
@@ -86,6 +161,7 @@ class DockerMixin(RouterMixin):
     def setUpClass(cls):
         super(DockerMixin, cls).setUpClass()
         cls.dockerized_ssh = DockerizedSshDaemon()
+        cls.dockerized_ssh.wait_for_sshd()
 
     @classmethod
     def tearDownClass(cls):