diff -r 58086f0a953a Modules/socketmodule.c
--- a/Modules/socketmodule.c	Wed Jan 27 00:39:12 2016 +0100
+++ b/Modules/socketmodule.c	Thu Jan 28 01:58:17 2016 +0100
@@ -4529,6 +4529,7 @@ gethost_common(struct hostent *h, struct
     PyObject *name_list = (PyObject *)NULL;
     PyObject *addr_list = (PyObject *)NULL;
     PyObject *tmp;
+    PyObject *name;

     if (h == NULL) {
         /* Let's get real error message to return */
@@ -4637,7 +4638,18 @@ gethost_common(struct hostent *h, struct
             goto err;
     }

-    rtn_tuple = Py_BuildValue("sOO", h->h_name, name_list, addr_list);
+#ifdef MS_WINDOWS
+    /* Issue #26227: gethostbyaddr() returns a string encoded
+     * to the ANSI code page */
+    name = PyUnicode_DecodeLocale(h->h_name);
+#else
+    /* FIXME: is it correct to always decode from UTF-8? */
+    name = PyUnicode_FromString(h->h_name);
+#endif
+    if (name == NULL)
+        goto err;
+    rtn_tuple = Py_BuildValue("OOO", name, name_list, addr_list);
+    Py_DECREF(name);

  err:
     Py_XDECREF(name_list);