diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
index 7bcb6ba37f0..8f41d7fec10 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
@@ -143,6 +143,31 @@ class XMLRPCTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
                           ('host.tld',
                            [('Authorization', 'Basic dXNlcg==')], {}))
 
+    def test_ssl_presence(self):
+        #Check for ssl support
+        have_ssl = False
+        if hasattr(socket, 'ssl'):
+            have_ssl = True
+        else:
+            try:
+                import ssl
+            except:
+                pass
+            else:
+                have_ssl = True
+        try:
+            xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy('https://localhost:9999').bad_function()
+        except:
+            exc = sys.exc_info()
+        if exc[0] == socket.error:
+            self.assertTrue(have_ssl,
+                            "No SSL support, but xmlrpclib reports supported.")
+        elif exc[0] == NotImplementedError and str(exc[1]) == \
+                 "your version of http.client doesn't support HTTPS":
+            self.assertFalse(have_ssl,
+                             "SSL supported, but xmlrpclib reports not.")
+        else:
+            self.fail("Unable to determine status of SSL check.")
 
 class HelperTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_escape(self):
diff --git a/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py b/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
index 8d35b5a0e26..d7dbbcc2e11 100644
--- a/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
+++ b/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
@@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ class SafeTransport(Transport):
 
     def send_request(self, host, handler, request_body, debug):
         import socket
-        if not hasattr(socket, "ssl"):
+        if not hasattr(http.client, "ssl"):
             raise NotImplementedError(
                 "your version of http.client doesn't support HTTPS")