diff --git a/contrib/serve-event/serve-event.lisp b/contrib/serve-event/serve-event.lisp
index 895738772..986c1cba2 100644
--- a/contrib/serve-event/serve-event.lisp
+++ b/contrib/serve-event/serve-event.lisp
@@ -56,11 +56,20 @@
 (define-c-constants
     +eintr+ "EINTR")
 
+(defmethod ext::stream-fd ((stream t))
+  (etypecase stream
+    (fixnum stream)
+    (two-way-stream (ext::stream-fd (two-way-stream-input-stream stream)))
+    (file-stream (si:file-stream-fd stream))
+    (otherwise (error "In SERVE-EVENT, stream~%  ~A~%does not have an associated file descriptor" stream))))
+
 (defstruct (handler
-            (:constructor make-handler (direction descriptor function))
+            (:constructor make-handler (direction stream-or-descriptor function
+                                        &aux (descriptor (ext::stream-fd stream-or-descriptor))))
             (:copier nil))
   ;; Reading or writing...
   (direction nil :type (member :input :output))
+  (stream-or-descriptor nil)
   ;; File descriptor this handler is tied to.
   ;; FIXME: Should be based on FD_SETSIZE
   (descriptor 0)
diff --git a/contrib/sockets/sockets.lisp b/contrib/sockets/sockets.lisp
index b60aa9564..41743f71f 100755
--- a/contrib/sockets/sockets.lisp
+++ b/contrib/sockets/sockets.lisp
@@ -1236,6 +1236,9 @@ also known as unix-domain sockets."))
       (sb-ext:cancel-finalization socket))
     stream))
 
+(defmethod ext::stream-fd ((socket socket))
+  (socket-file-descriptor socket))
+
 #+:wsock
 (defmethod socket-make-stream ((socket named-pipe-socket)
 			       &key input output