diff --git a/base/socket.jl b/base/socket.jl
index ef976be07e385..5bbb7683ccaa5 100644
--- a/base/socket.jl
+++ b/base/socket.jl
@@ -546,6 +546,7 @@ const _sizeof_uv_interface_address = ccall(:jl_uv_sizeof_interface_address,Int32
 function getipaddr()
     addr = Array(Ptr{Uint8},1)
     count = Array(Int32,1)
+    lo_present = false
     err = ccall(:jl_uv_interface_addresses,Int32,(Ptr{Ptr{Uint8}},Ptr{Int32}),addr,count)
     addr, count = addr[1],count[1]
     if err != 0
@@ -555,6 +556,7 @@ function getipaddr()
     for i = 0:(count-1)
         current_addr = addr + i*_sizeof_uv_interface_address
         if 1 == ccall(:jl_uv_interface_address_is_internal,Int32,(Ptr{Uint8},),current_addr)
+            lo_present = true
             continue
         end
         sockaddr = ccall(:jl_uv_interface_address_sockaddr,Ptr{Void},(Ptr{Uint8},),current_addr)
@@ -568,7 +570,7 @@ function getipaddr()
         end
     end
     ccall(:uv_free_interface_addresses,Void,(Ptr{Uint8},Int32),addr,count)
-    return ip"127.0.0.1"
+    lo_present ? ip"127.0.0.1" : error("No networking interface available")
 end
 
 ##
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 8b8fa3741730f..99f2fdd216036 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -23,12 +23,28 @@ if "linalg" in tests
     prepend!(tests, ["linalg1", "linalg2", "linalg3"])
 end
 
+net_required_for = ["socket", "parallel"]
+net_on = true
+try
+    ip = getipaddr()
+catch
+    warn_str = "Networking unavailable: Skipping tests [$(net_required_for[1])"
+    for x in net_required_for[2:end]
+        warn_str = warn_str * ", $x"
+    end
+    warn_str = warn_str * "]"
+    warn(warn_str)
+    net_on = false
+end
 
-n = min(8, CPU_CORES, length(tests))
-
-n > 1 && addprocs(n)
-
-blas_set_num_threads(1)
+n = 1
+if net_on 
+    n = min(8, CPU_CORES, length(tests))
+    n > 1 && addprocs(n)
+    blas_set_num_threads(1)
+else
+    filter!(x -> !(x in net_required_for), tests)
+end
 
 @everywhere include("testdefs.jl")