diff --git a/IPython/parallel/__init__.py b/IPython/parallel/__init__.py
index 511e10d..ac6161f 100644
--- a/IPython/parallel/__init__.py
+++ b/IPython/parallel/__init__.py
@@ -23,10 +23,7 @@ import zmq
 from IPython.config.configurable import MultipleInstanceError
 from IPython.zmq import check_for_zmq
 
-if os.name == 'nt':
-    min_pyzmq = '2.1.7'
-else:
-    min_pyzmq = '2.1.4'
+min_pyzmq = '2.1.11'
 
 check_for_zmq(min_pyzmq, 'IPython.parallel')
 
diff --git a/IPython/testing/iptest.py b/IPython/testing/iptest.py
index 100f8ea..6b5d6f4 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/iptest.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/iptest.py
@@ -167,19 +167,9 @@ have['wx'] = test_for('wx')
 have['wx.aui'] = test_for('wx.aui')
 have['azure'] = test_for('azure')
 
-if os.name == 'nt':
-    min_zmq = (2,1,7)
-else:
-    min_zmq = (2,1,4)
-
-def version_tuple(mod):
-    "turn '2.1.9' into (2,1,9), and '2.1dev' into (2,1,999)"
-    # turn 'dev' into 999, because Python3 rejects str-int comparisons
-    vs = mod.__version__.replace('dev', '.999')
-    tup = tuple([int(v) for v in vs.split('.') ])
-    return tup
-
-have['zmq'] = test_for('zmq', min_zmq, version_tuple)
+min_zmq = (2,1,11)
+
+have['zmq'] = test_for('zmq.pyzmq_version_info', min_zmq)
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Functions and classes
diff --git a/IPython/zmq/__init__.py b/IPython/zmq/__init__.py
index fd40150..230d221 100644
--- a/IPython/zmq/__init__.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/__init__.py
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Verify zmq version dependency >= 2.1.4
+# Verify zmq version dependency >= 2.1.11
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 import warnings
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion as V
+from IPython.utils.version import check_version
 
 
 def patch_pyzmq():
@@ -21,22 +21,6 @@ def patch_pyzmq():
     
     import zmq
     
-    # ioloop.install, introduced in pyzmq 2.1.7
-    from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
-    
-    def install():
-        import tornado.ioloop
-        tornado.ioloop.IOLoop = ioloop.IOLoop
-    
-    if not hasattr(ioloop, 'install'):
-        ioloop.install = install
-    
-    # fix missing DEALER/ROUTER aliases in pyzmq < 2.1.9
-    if not hasattr(zmq, 'DEALER'):
-        zmq.DEALER = zmq.XREQ
-    if not hasattr(zmq, 'ROUTER'):
-        zmq.ROUTER = zmq.XREP
-    
     # fallback on stdlib json if jsonlib is selected, because jsonlib breaks things.
     # jsonlib support is removed from pyzmq >= 2.2.0
 
@@ -54,17 +38,11 @@ def check_for_zmq(minimum_version, module='IPython.zmq'):
 
     pyzmq_version = zmq.__version__
     
-    if 'dev' not in pyzmq_version and V(pyzmq_version) < V(minimum_version):
+    if not check_version(pyzmq_version, minimum_version):
         raise ImportError("%s requires pyzmq >= %s, but you have %s"%(
                         module, minimum_version, pyzmq_version))
 
-    if V(zmq.zmq_version()) >= V('4.0.0'):
-        warnings.warn("""libzmq 4 detected.
-        It is unlikely that IPython's zmq code will work properly.
-        Please install libzmq stable, which is 2.1.x or 2.2.x""",
-        RuntimeWarning)
-
-check_for_zmq('2.1.4')
+check_for_zmq('2.1.11')
 patch_pyzmq()
 
 from .blockingkernelmanager import BlockingKernelManager
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d0386ec..5c36e29 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -229,12 +229,12 @@ if 'setuptools' in sys.modules:
     setuptools_extra_args['zip_safe'] = False
     setuptools_extra_args['entry_points'] = find_scripts(True)
     setup_args['extras_require'] = dict(
-        parallel = 'pyzmq>=2.1.4',
-        qtconsole = ['pyzmq>=2.1.4', 'pygments'],
-        zmq = 'pyzmq>=2.1.4',
+        parallel = 'pyzmq>=2.1.11',
+        qtconsole = ['pyzmq>=2.1.11', 'pygments'],
+        zmq = 'pyzmq>=2.1.11',
         doc = 'Sphinx>=0.3',
         test = 'nose>=0.10.1',
-        notebook = ['tornado>=2.0', 'pyzmq>=2.1.4', 'jinja2'],
+        notebook = ['tornado>=2.0', 'pyzmq>=2.1.11', 'jinja2'],
     )
     requires = setup_args.setdefault('install_requires', [])
     setupext.display_status = False
diff --git a/setupext/setupext.py b/setupext/setupext.py
index 50d2144..b2f824e 100644
--- a/setupext/setupext.py
+++ b/setupext/setupext.py
@@ -142,23 +142,13 @@ def check_for_pyzmq():
     else:
         # pyzmq 2.1.10 adds pyzmq_version_info funtion for returning
         # version as a tuple
-        if hasattr(zmq, 'pyzmq_version_info'):
-            if zmq.pyzmq_version_info() >= (2,1,4):
+        if hasattr(zmq, 'pyzmq_version_info') and zmq.pyzmq_version_info() >= (2,1,11):
                 print_status("pyzmq", zmq.__version__)
                 return True
-            else:
-                # this branch can never occur, at least until we update our
-                # pyzmq dependency beyond 2.1.10
-                return False
-        # this is necessarily earlier than 2.1.10, so string comparison is
-        # okay
-        if zmq.__version__ < '2.1.4':
-            print_status('pyzmq', "no (have %s, but require >= 2.1.4 for"
-            " qtconsole and parallel computing capabilities)"%zmq.__version__)
-            return False
         else:
-            print_status("pyzmq", zmq.__version__)
-            return True
+            print_status('pyzmq', "no (have %s, but require >= 2.1.11 for"
+            " qtconsole, notebook, and parallel computing capabilities)" % zmq.__version__)
+            return False
 
 def check_for_readline():
     from distutils.version import LooseVersion