diff --git a/lib/connect.js b/lib/connect.js
index c55e0e87..603f1981 100644
--- a/lib/connect.js
+++ b/lib/connect.js
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 'use strict';
 
-var URL = require('url');
+var URL = require('url-parse');
 var QS = require('querystring');
 var Connection = require('./connection').Connection;
 var fmt = require('util').format;
@@ -76,22 +76,12 @@ function openFrames(vhost, query, credentials, extraClientProperties) {
   };
 }
 
-// Decide on credentials based on what we're supplied. Note that in a
-// parsed URL, the auth part is already URL-decoded, so e.g., '%3a' in
-// the URL is already decoded to ':'. This is a bit unhelpful, as it
-// means we can't tell whether a colon is a separator, or part of the
-// username. Assume no colons in usernames.
+// Decide on credentials based on what we're supplied.
 function credentialsFromUrl(parts) {
   var user = 'guest', passwd = 'guest';
-  if (parts.auth) {
-    var colon = parts.auth.indexOf(':')
-    if (colon == -1) {
-      user = parts.auth;
-      passwd = '';
-    } else {
-      user = parts.auth.substring(0, colon);
-      passwd = parts.auth.substring(colon+1);
-    }
+  if (parts.username != '' || parts.password != '') {
+    user = (parts.username) ? unescape(parts.username) : '';
+    passwd = (parts.password) ? unescape(parts.password) : '';
   }
   return credentials.plain(user, passwd);
 }
@@ -137,7 +127,7 @@ function connect(url, socketOptions, openCallback) {
 
     fields = openFrames(url.vhost, config, sockopts.credentials || credentials.plain(user, pass), extraClientProperties);
   } else {
-    var parts = URL.parse(url, true); // yes, parse the query string
+    var parts = URL(url, true); // yes, parse the query string
     protocol = parts.protocol;
     sockopts.host = parts.hostname;
     sockopts.port = parseInt(parts.port) || ((protocol === 'amqp:') ? 5672 : 5671);
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e774f161..ce37690e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@
     "bluebird": "^3.4.6",
     "buffer-more-ints": "0.0.2",
     "readable-stream": "1.x >=1.1.9",
-    "safe-buffer": "^5.0.1"
+    "safe-buffer": "^5.0.1",
+    "url-parse": "^1.2.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "mocha": "~1",
diff --git a/test/connect.js b/test/connect.js
index 277c3644..e44c38b6 100644
--- a/test/connect.js
+++ b/test/connect.js
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ var format = require('util').format;
 
 var URL = process.env.URL || 'amqp://localhost';
 
+var urlparse = require('url-parse');
+
 suite("Credentials", function() {
 
   function checkCreds(creds, user, pass, done) {
@@ -27,29 +29,29 @@ suite("Credentials", function() {
   }
 
   test("no creds", function(done) {
-    var parts = {auth: ''};
+    var parts = urlparse('amqp://localhost');
     var creds = credentialsFromUrl(parts);
     checkCreds(creds, 'guest', 'guest', done);
   });
   test("usual user:pass", function(done) {
-    var parts = {auth: 'user:pass'};
+    var parts = urlparse('amqp://user:pass@localhost')
     var creds = credentialsFromUrl(parts);
     checkCreds(creds, 'user', 'pass', done);
   });
   test("missing user", function(done) {
-    var parts = {auth: ':password'};
+    var parts = urlparse('amqps://:password@localhost');
     var creds = credentialsFromUrl(parts);
     checkCreds(creds, '', 'password', done);
   });
   test("missing password", function(done) {
-    var parts = {auth: 'username'};
+    var parts = urlparse('amqps://username:@localhost');
     var creds = credentialsFromUrl(parts);
     checkCreds(creds, 'username', '', done);
   });
-  test("colon in password", function(done) {
-    var parts = {auth: 'username:pass:word'};
+  test("escaped colons", function(done) {
+    var parts = urlparse('amqp://user%3Aname:pass%3Aword@localhost')
     var creds = credentialsFromUrl(parts);
-    checkCreds(creds, 'username', 'pass:word', done);
+    checkCreds(creds, 'user:name', 'pass:word', done);
   });
 });