diff --git a/utilities/utils/assistHelper.js b/utilities/utils/assistHelper.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..942f2b4e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utilities/utils/assistHelper.js
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+const uaParser = require('ua-parser-js');
+const {geoip} = require('./geoIP');
+
+let debug = process.env.debug === "1" || false;
+
+const BASE_sessionInfo = {
+    "pageTitle": "Page",
+    "active": true,
+    "live": true,
+    "sessionID": "0",
+    "metadata": {},
+    "userID": "",
+    "userUUID": "",
+    "projectKey": "",
+    "revID": "",
+    "timestamp": 0,
+    "trackerVersion": "",
+    "isSnippet": true,
+    "userOs": "",
+    "userBrowser": "",
+    "userBrowserVersion": "",
+    "userDevice": "",
+    "userDeviceType": "",
+    "userCountry": "",
+    "projectId": 0
+};
+
+
+const extractSessionInfo = function (socket) {
+    if (socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo !== undefined) {
+        debug && console.log("received headers");
+        debug && console.log(socket.handshake.headers);
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo = JSON.parse(socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo);
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo = {...BASE_sessionInfo, ...socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo};
+
+        let ua = uaParser(socket.handshake.headers['user-agent']);
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userOs = ua.os.name || null;
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userBrowser = ua.browser.name || null;
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userBrowserVersion = ua.browser.version || null;
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userDevice = ua.device.model || null;
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userDeviceType = ua.device.type || 'desktop';
+        socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userCountry = null;
+        if (geoip() !== null) {
+            debug && console.log(`looking for location of ${socket.handshake.headers['x-forwarded-for'] || socket.handshake.address}`);
+            try {
+                let country = geoip().country(socket.handshake.headers['x-forwarded-for'] || socket.handshake.address);
+                socket.handshake.query.sessionInfo.userCountry = country.country.isoCode;
+            } catch (e) {
+                debug && console.log("geoip-country failed");
+                debug && console.log(e);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+
+module.exports = {
+    extractSessionInfo
+};
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