-#else /* little endian host */
-#define le_to_h_u32(x) (*(u32*)(x))
-#define le_to_h_u16(x) (*(u16*)(x))
-#define be_to_h_u32(x) (u32)(x[3] | x[2] << 8 | x[1] << 16 | x[0] << 24)
-#define be_to_h_u16(x) (u16)(x[1] | x[0] << 8)
+/* DANGER!!!! here be dragons! Note that the pointer in
+ * memory might be unaligned. On some CPU's, i.e. ARM7,
+ * the 2 lsb are ignored for 32 bit access, on others
+ * it will cause an exception and on e.g. x86, it works
+ * the same as if aligned.
+ */
+#define le_to_h_u32(x) ((u32)((x)[0] | (x)[1] << 8 | (x)[2] << 16 | (x)[3] << 24))
+#define le_to_h_u16(x) ((u16)((x)[0] | (x)[1] << 8))
+#define be_to_h_u32(x) ((u32)((x)[3] | (x)[2] << 8 | (x)[1] << 16 | (x)[0] << 24))
+#define be_to_h_u16(x) ((u16)((x)[1] | (x)[0] << 8))