diff --git a/ares/configure.ac b/ares/configure.ac
index 5080cf26203cbe647bea5b0dee1f616e401fffd6..1bb474bfb490ee83cac3da2abfa0472cf5fc73b3 100644
--- a/ares/configure.ac
+++ b/ares/configure.ac
@@ -58,4 +58,12 @@ AC_HELP_STRING([--disable-debug],[Disable debug options]),
        AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
 )
 
+dnl check for a few basic system headers we need
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS(
+        sys/types.h \
+        sys/time.h \
+        sys/select.h \
+        sys/socket.h \
+        )
+
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile)