diff --git a/Lib/urllib.py b/Lib/urllib.py
index 167bdcb..5f3ec3c 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib.py
@@ -91,6 +91,14 @@
     if _urlopener:
         _urlopener.cleanup()
 
+# check for SSL
+try:
+    import ssl
+except:
+    _have_ssl = False
+else:
+    _have_ssl = True
+
 # exception raised when downloaded size does not match content-length
 class ContentTooShortError(IOError):
     def __init__(self, message, content):
@@ -361,9 +369,10 @@
         fp.close()
         raise IOError, ('http error', errcode, errmsg, headers)
 
-    if hasattr(socket, "ssl"):
+    if _have_ssl:
         def open_https(self, url, data=None):
             """Use HTTPS protocol."""
+
             import httplib
             user_passwd = None
             proxy_passwd = None