diff --git a/management/ssl_certificates.py b/management/ssl_certificates.py
index c6b5080f..303571bb 100755
--- a/management/ssl_certificates.py
+++ b/management/ssl_certificates.py
@@ -213,41 +213,17 @@ def get_certificates_to_provision(env, show_extended_problems=True, force_domain
 
 	# Filter out domains that we can't provision a certificate for.
 	def can_provision_for_domain(domain):
-		from status_checks import normalize_ip
+		from status_checks import query_dns, normalize_ip
 
 		# Does the domain resolve to this machine in public DNS? If not,
 		# we can't do domain control validation. For IPv6 is configured,
 		# make sure both IPv4 and IPv6 are correct because we don't know
 		# how Let's Encrypt will connect.
-		import dns.resolver
 		for rtype, value in [("A", env["PUBLIC_IP"]), ("AAAA", env.get("PUBLIC_IPV6"))]:
 			if not value: continue # IPv6 is not configured
-			try:
-				# Must make the qname absolute to prevent a fall-back lookup with a
-				# search domain appended, by adding a period to the end.
-				response = dns.resolver.query(domain + ".", rtype)
-			except (dns.resolver.NoNameservers, dns.resolver.NXDOMAIN, dns.resolver.NoAnswer) as e:
-				problems[domain] = "DNS isn't configured properly for this domain: DNS resolution failed (%s: %s)." % (rtype, str(e) or repr(e)) # NoAnswer's str is empty
-				return False
-			except Exception as e:
-				problems[domain] = "DNS isn't configured properly for this domain: DNS lookup had an error: %s." % str(e)
-				return False
-
-			# Unfortunately, the response.__str__ returns bytes
-			# instead of string, if it resulted from an AAAA-query.
-			# We need to convert manually, until this is fixed:
-			# https://github.com/rthalley/dnspython/issues/204
-			#
-			# BEGIN HOTFIX
-			def rdata__str__(r):
-				s = r.to_text()
-				if isinstance(s, bytes):
-					 s = s.decode('utf-8')
-				return s
-			# END HOTFIX
-
-			if len(response) != 1 or normalize_ip(rdata__str__(response[0])) != normalize_ip(value):
-				problems[domain] = "Domain control validation cannot be performed for this domain because DNS points the domain to another machine (%s %s)." % (rtype, ", ".join(rdata__str__(r) for r in response))
+			response = query_dns(domain, rtype)
+			if response != normalize_ip(value):
+				problems[domain] = "The domain name does not resolve to this machine: DNS %s resolved to %s." % (rtype, response)
 				return False
 
 		return True
diff --git a/management/status_checks.py b/management/status_checks.py
index 6d07aee7..3b0026d9 100755
--- a/management/status_checks.py
+++ b/management/status_checks.py
@@ -393,7 +393,7 @@ def check_primary_hostname_dns(domain, env, output, dns_domains, dns_zonefiles):
 
 	# Check that PRIMARY_HOSTNAME resolves to PUBLIC_IP[V6] in public DNS.
 	ipv6 = query_dns(domain, "AAAA") if env.get("PUBLIC_IPV6") else None
-	if ip == env['PUBLIC_IP'] and not (ipv6 and env['PUBLIC_IPV6'] and normalize_ip(ipv6) != normalize_ip(env['PUBLIC_IPV6'])):
+	if ip == env['PUBLIC_IP'] and not (ipv6 and env['PUBLIC_IPV6'] and ipv6 != normalize_ip(env['PUBLIC_IPV6'])):
 		output.print_ok("Domain resolves to box's IP address. [%s ↦ %s]" % (env['PRIMARY_HOSTNAME'], my_ips))
 	else:
 		output.print_error("""This domain must resolve to your box's IP address (%s) in public DNS but it currently resolves
@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ def check_web_domain(domain, rounded_time, ssl_certificates, env, output):
 		for (rtype, expected) in (("A", env['PUBLIC_IP']), ("AAAA", env.get('PUBLIC_IPV6'))):
 			if not expected: continue # IPv6 is not configured
 			value = query_dns(domain, rtype)
-			if normalize_ip(value) == normalize_ip(expected):
+			if value == normalize_ip(expected):
 				ok_values.append(value)
 			else:
 				output.print_error("""This domain should resolve to your box's IP address (%s %s) if you would like the box to serve
@@ -687,27 +687,17 @@ def query_dns(qname, rtype, nxdomain='[Not Set]', at=None):
 	except dns.exception.Timeout:
 		return "[timeout]"
 
+	# Normalize IP addresses. IP address --- especially IPv6 addresses --- can
+	# be expressed in equivalent string forms. Canonicalize the form before
+	# returning them. The caller should normalize any IP addresses the result
+	# of this method is compared with.
+	if rtype in ("A", "AAAA"):
+		response = [normalize_ip(str(r)) for r in response]
+
 	# There may be multiple answers; concatenate the response. Remove trailing
 	# periods from responses since that's how qnames are encoded in DNS but is
 	# confusing for us. The order of the answers doesn't matter, so sort so we
 	# can compare to a well known order.
-
-	# Unfortunately, the response.__str__ returns bytes
-	# instead of string, if it resulted from an AAAA-query.
-	# We need to convert manually, until this is fixed:
-	# https://github.com/rthalley/dnspython/issues/204
-	#
-	# BEGIN HOTFIX
-	response_new = []
-	for r in response:
-		s = r.to_text()
-		if isinstance(s, bytes):
-			s = s.decode('utf-8')
-		response_new.append(s)
-	
-	response = response_new
-	# END HOTFIX
-
 	return "; ".join(sorted(str(r).rstrip('.') for r in response))
 
 def check_ssl_cert(domain, rounded_time, ssl_certificates, env, output):
@@ -892,7 +882,9 @@ def run_and_output_changes(env, pool):
 		json.dump(cur.buf, f, indent=True)
 
 def normalize_ip(ip):
-	# Use ipaddress module to normalize the IPv6 notation and ensure we are matching IPv6 addresses written in different representations according to rfc5952.
+	# Use ipaddress module to normalize the IPv6 notation and
+	# ensure we are matching IPv6 addresses written in different
+	# representations according to rfc5952.
 	import ipaddress
 	try:
 		return str(ipaddress.ip_address(ip))