diff --git a/fhem/FHEM/99_Utils.pm b/fhem/FHEM/99_Utils.pm
index 0f3028d77..81b134b6d 100644
--- a/fhem/FHEM/99_Utils.pm
+++ b/fhem/FHEM/99_Utils.pm
@@ -217,6 +217,26 @@ IsInt($)
   defined $_[0] && $_[0] =~ /^[+-]?\d+$/;
 }
 
+# Small NC replacement: fhemNc("ip:port", "text", waitForReturn);
+sub
+fhemNc($$$)
+{
+  my ($addr, $txt, $waitForReturn) = @_;
+  my $client = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => $addr);
+  return "Can't connect to $addr\n" if(!$client);
+  syswrite($client, $txt);
+  return "" if(!$waitForReturn);
+  my ($ret, $buf) = ("", "");
+  shutdown($client, 1);
+  alarm(5);
+  while(sysread($client, $buf, 256) > 0) {
+    $ret .= $buf;
+  }
+  alarm(0);
+  close($client);
+  return $ret;
+}
+
 1;
 
 =pod
@@ -310,6 +330,12 @@ myUtils_Initialize($$)
       to the number of seconds since 1970. Optimized for repeated use of similar
       timestamps.</li></br>
 
+    <li><b>fhemNc("host:port", "textToSend", waitForReturn)</b><br>
+      sends textToSend to host:port, and if waitForReturn is set, then read
+      the answer (wait up to 5 seconds) and return it. Intended as small
+      nc replacement.
+      </li></br>
+
   </ul>
 </ul>
 =end html
diff --git a/fhem/FHEM/FritzBoxUtils.pm b/fhem/FHEM/FritzBoxUtils.pm
index b6207932c..b1b1706f9 100644
--- a/fhem/FHEM/FritzBoxUtils.pm
+++ b/fhem/FHEM/FritzBoxUtils.pm
@@ -99,18 +99,18 @@ sub
 FB_WLANswitch($) {
  my $cmd = shift;
  my $ret = ""; 
- if ($cmd =~ m"on"i) {            # on or ON
-  $ret .= "ATD: " . `echo "ATD#96*1*" | nc 127.0.0.1 1011` ;
+ if ($cmd =~ m/on/i) {            # on or ON
+  $ret .= "ATD:".fhemNc("127.0.0.1:1011", "ATD#96*1*\n", 1);
   sleep 1 ;
-  $ret .= " ATH: " . `echo "ATH" | nc 127.0.0.1 1011` ;
+  $ret .= " ATH:".fhemNc("127.0.0.1:1011", "ATH\n", 1);
  }
- if ($cmd =~ m"off"i) {           # off or OFF
-  $ret .= "ATD: " . `echo "ATD#96*0*" | nc 127.0.0.1 1011` ;
+ if ($cmd =~ m/off/i) {           # off or OFF
+  $ret .= "ATD:".fhemNc("127.0.0.1:1011", "ATD#96*0*\n", 1);
   sleep 1 ;
-  $ret .= " ATH: " . `echo "ATH" | nc 127.0.0.1 1011` ;
+  $ret .= " ATH:".fhemNc("127.0.0.1:1011", "ATH\n", 1);
  }
  $ret =~ s,[\r\n]*,,g;        # remove CR from return-string
- Log 4, "FB_WLANswitch($cmd) returned: $ret";
+ Log 3, "FB_WLANswitch($cmd) returned: $ret";
 }
 
 1;