diff --git a/Lib/test/test___all__.py b/Lib/test/test___all__.py
index 2cc021b47d5..550867038fb 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test___all__.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test___all__.py
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ def check_all(modname):
     all.sort()
     verify(keys==all, "%s != %s" % (keys, all))
 
+# In case _socket fails to build, make this test fail more gracefully
+# than an AttributeError somewhere deep in CGIHTTPServer.
+import _socket
+    
 check_all("BaseHTTPServer")
 check_all("CGIHTTPServer")
 check_all("ConfigParser")