diff --git a/env.js b/env.js
index c8be09fb2..58692857d 100644
--- a/env.js
+++ b/env.js
@@ -32,13 +32,23 @@ function config ( ) {
   }
   env.version = software.version;
   env.name = software.name;
-  env.MQTT_MONITOR = readENV('MQTT_MONITOR', null);
   env.DISPLAY_UNITS = readENV('DISPLAY_UNITS', 'mg/dl');
   env.PORT = readENV('PORT', 1337);
   env.mongo = readENV('MONGO_CONNECTION') || readENV('MONGO') || readENV('MONGOLAB_URI');
   env.mongo_collection = readENV('MONGO_COLLECTION', 'entries');
+  env.MQTT_MONITOR = readENV('MQTT_MONITOR', null);
   if (env.MQTT_MONITOR) {
-    env.mqtt_client_id = [env.mongo.split('/').pop( ), env.mongo_collection].join('.');
+    var hostDbCollection = [env.mongo.split('mongodb://').pop().split('@').pop( ), env.mongo_collection].join('/');
+    var mongoHash = crypto.createHash('sha1');
+    mongoHash.update(hostDbCollection);
+    //some MQTT servers only allow the client id to be 23 chars
+    env.mqtt_client_id = mongoHash.digest('base64').substring(0, 23);
+    console.info('Using Mongo host/db/collection to create the default MQTT client_id', hostDbCollection);
+    if (env.MQTT_MONITOR.indexOf('?clientId=') == -1) {
+      console.info('Set MQTT client_id to: ', env.mqtt_client_id);
+    } else {
+      console.info('MQTT configured to use a custom client id, it will override the default: ', env.mqtt_client_id);
+    }
   }
   env.settings_collection = readENV('MONGO_SETTINGS_COLLECTION', 'settings');
   env.treatments_collection = readENV('MONGO_TREATMENTS_COLLECTION', 'treatments');
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index fd31ca30e..b667af528 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "async": "^0.9.0",
     "body-parser": "^1.4.3",
+    "bootevent": "0.0.1",
     "bower": "^1.3.8",
     "browserify-express": "^0.1.4",
     "compression": "^1.4.2",
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@
     "event-stream": "~3.1.5",
     "express": "^4.6.1",
     "express-extension-to-accept": "0.0.2",
+    "forever": "~0.13.0",
     "git-rev": "git://github.com/bewest/git-rev.git",
     "long": "~2.2.3",
     "mongodb": "^1.4.7",
@@ -58,10 +60,7 @@
     "mqtt": "~0.3.11",
     "pushover-notifications": "0.2.0",
     "sgvdata": "git://github.com/ktind/sgvdata.git#wip/protobuf",
-    "socket.io": "^0.9.17",
-    "git-rev": "git://github.com/bewest/git-rev.git",
-    "bootevent": "0.0.1",
-    "forever": "~0.13.0"
+    "socket.io": "^0.9.17"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "istanbul": "~0.3.5",