diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
index 8f41d7fec10..7236947f580 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
@@ -144,30 +144,18 @@ def test_get_host_info(self):
                            [('Authorization', 'Basic dXNlcg==')], {}))
 
     def test_ssl_presence(self):
-        #Check for ssl support
-        have_ssl = False
-        if hasattr(socket, 'ssl'):
-            have_ssl = True
+        try:
+            import ssl
+        except:
+            have_ssl = False
         else:
-            try:
-                import ssl
-            except:
-                pass
-            else:
-                have_ssl = True
+            has_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.")
+        except NotImplementedError:
+            self.assertFalse(has_ssl, "xmlrpc client's error with SSL support")
+        except socket.error:
+            self.assertTrue(has_ssl)
 
 class HelperTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_escape(self):
diff --git a/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py b/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
index d7dbbcc2e11..9357ac33e2a 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(http.client, "ssl"):
+        if not hasattr(http.client, "HTTPSConnection"):
             raise NotImplementedError(
                 "your version of http.client doesn't support HTTPS")