diff --git a/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py b/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py
index 734e6e0c27..89d6afde89 100644
--- a/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py
+++ b/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py
@@ -24,11 +24,9 @@ from evennia.utils.utils import (variable_from_module, is_iter,
                                  make_iter,
                                  callables_from_module)
 from evennia.utils.inlinefuncs import parse_inlinefunc
+from codecs import decode as codecs_decode
 
-try:
-    import pickle as pickle
-except ImportError:
-    import pickle
+import pickle
 
 _INLINEFUNC_ENABLED = settings.INLINEFUNC_ENABLED
 
@@ -39,6 +37,8 @@ _ServerConfig = None
 _ScriptDB = None
 _OOB_HANDLER = None
 
+_ERR_BAD_UTF8 = 'Your client sent an incorrect UTF-8 sequence.'
+
 
 class DummySession(object):
     sessid = 0
@@ -47,17 +47,8 @@ class DummySession(object):
 DUMMYSESSION = DummySession()
 
 # AMP signals
-PCONN = chr(1)        # portal session connect
-PDISCONN = chr(2)     # portal session disconnect
-PSYNC = chr(3)        # portal session sync
-SLOGIN = chr(4)       # server session login
-SDISCONN = chr(5)     # server session disconnect
-SDISCONNALL = chr(6)  # server session disconnect all
-SSHUTD = chr(7)       # server shutdown
-SSYNC = chr(8)        # server session sync
-SCONN = chr(11)        # server portal connection (for bots)
-PCONNSYNC = chr(12)   # portal post-syncing session
-PDISCONNALL = chr(13)  # portal session discnnect all
+from .amp import (PCONN, PDISCONN, PSYNC, SLOGIN, SDISCONN, SDISCONNALL,
+                  SSHUTD, SSYNC, SCONN, PCONNSYNC, PDISCONNALL, )
 
 # i18n
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
@@ -185,6 +176,21 @@ class SessionHandler(dict):
         raw = options.get("raw", False)
         strip_inlinefunc = options.get("strip_inlinefunc", False)
 
+        def _utf8(data):
+            if isinstance(data, bytes):
+                try:
+                    data = codecs_decode(data, session.protocol_flags["ENCODING"])
+                except LookupError:
+                    # wrong encoding set on the session. Set it to a safe one
+                    session.protocol_flags["ENCODING"] = "utf-8"
+                    data = codecs_decode(data, "utf-8")
+                except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                    # incorrect unicode sequence
+                    session.sendLine(_ERR_BAD_UTF8)
+                    data = ''
+
+            return data
+
         def _validate(data):
             "Helper function to convert data to AMP-safe (picketable) values"
             if isinstance(data, dict):
@@ -192,24 +198,15 @@ class SessionHandler(dict):
                 for key, part in list(data.items()):
                     newdict[key] = _validate(part)
                 return newdict
-            elif hasattr(data, "__iter__"):
+            elif is_iter(data):
                 return [_validate(part) for part in data]
-            elif isinstance(data, str):
-                # make sure strings are in a valid encoding
-                try:
-                    data = data and to_str(to_unicode(data), encoding=session.protocol_flags["ENCODING"])
-                except LookupError:
-                    # wrong encoding set on the session. Set it to a safe one
-                    session.protocol_flags["ENCODING"] = "utf-8"
-                    data = to_str(to_unicode(data), encoding=session.protocol_flags["ENCODING"])
+            elif isinstance(data, (str, bytes, )):
+                data = _utf8(data)
+
                 if _INLINEFUNC_ENABLED and not raw and isinstance(self, ServerSessionHandler):
                     # only parse inlinefuncs on the outgoing path (sessionhandler->)
                     data = parse_inlinefunc(data, strip=strip_inlinefunc, session=session)
-                # At this point the object is certainly the right encoding, but may still be a unicode object--
-                # to_str does not actually force objects to become bytestrings.
-                # If the unicode object is a subclass of unicode, such as ANSIString, this can cause a problem,
-                # as special behavior for that class will still be in play. Since we're now transferring raw data,
-                # we must now force this to be a proper bytestring.
+
                 return str(data)
             elif hasattr(data, "id") and hasattr(data, "db_date_created") \
                     and hasattr(data, '__dbclass__'):
@@ -229,10 +226,10 @@ class SessionHandler(dict):
                 rkwargs[key] = [[], {}]
             elif isinstance(data, dict):
                 rkwargs[key] = [[], _validate(data)]
-            elif hasattr(data, "__iter__"):
+            elif is_iter(data):
                 if isinstance(data[-1], dict):
                     if len(data) == 2:
-                        if hasattr(data[0], "__iter__"):
+                        if is_iter(data[0]):
                             rkwargs[key] = [_validate(data[0]), _validate(data[1])]
                         else:
                             rkwargs[key] = [[_validate(data[0])], _validate(data[1])]