diff --git a/lib/bb/fetch2/wget.py b/lib/bb/fetch2/wget.py
index 6ac4306c0..93c8b73f4 100644
--- a/lib/bb/fetch2/wget.py
+++ b/lib/bb/fetch2/wget.py
@@ -60,6 +60,19 @@ class Wget(FetchMethod):
         """
         return (d.getVar("BB_CHECK_SSL_CERTS") or "1") != "0"
 
+    def identify_as_bitbake(self):
+        """
+        Should wget identify as bitbake?
+        """
+        return False
+
+    def bitbake_user_agent(self):
+        """
+        Certain hosts require users to identify with an application specific user-agent.
+        E.g. crates.io according to https://crates.io/data-access
+        """
+        return "bitbake/{} (https://lists.openembedded.org/g/bitbake-devel; bitbake-devel@lists.openembedded.org)".format(bb.__version__)
+
     def supports(self, ud, d):
         """
         Check to see if a given url can be fetched with wget.
@@ -122,6 +135,10 @@ class Wget(FetchMethod):
                 # Authorization header.
                 fetchcmd += " --user=%s --password=%s" % (ud.user, ud.pswd)
 
+        # Some hosts, e.g. crates.io, may require using a special user-agent.
+        if self.identify_as_bitbake():
+            fetchcmd += " --user-agent='%s'" % self.bitbake_user_agent()
+
         uri = ud.url.split(";")[0]
         fetchcmd += " --continue --directory-prefix=%s '%s'" % (dldir, uri)
         self._runwget(ud, d, fetchcmd, False)
@@ -371,7 +388,7 @@ class Wget(FetchMethod):
                 # Some servers (FusionForge, as used on Alioth) require that the
                 # optional Accept header is set.
                 r.add_header("Accept", "*/*")
-                r.add_header("User-Agent", "bitbake/{}".format(bb.__version__))
+                r.add_header("User-Agent", self.bitbake_user_agent())
                 def add_basic_auth(login_str, request):
                     '''Adds Basic auth to http request, pass in login:password as string'''
                     import base64