lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm | 10 +++++++++-
 t/nntpd-tls.t                 |  2 --
 t/nntpd.t                     |  5 -----

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
index a97125e59850a391bcef929bf63b5b8acdc6395e..6bf4526a9f707d44d36ed0fcb8cb169c4e8aac89 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
@@ -95,7 +95,15 @@ 			next if $ok;
 		} else {
 			eval "require $mod";
 		}
-		push @need, $mod if $@;
+		if ($@) {
+			push @need, $mod;
+		} elsif ($mod eq 'IO::Socket::SSL' &&
+			# old versions of IO::Socket::SSL aren't supported
+			# by libnet, at least:
+			# https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=100529
+				!eval{ IO::Socket::SSL->VERSION(2.007); 1 }) {
+			push @need, $@;
+		}
 	}
 	return unless @need;
 	my $m = join(', ', @need)." missing for $0";
diff --git a/t/nntpd-tls.t b/t/nntpd-tls.t
index 3de219f157330eddd2775a78416c7e4121133035..23baf4e443bbfbad297b1675e41d140216a3028a 100644
--- a/t/nntpd-tls.t
+++ b/t/nntpd-tls.t
@@ -10,8 +10,6 @@ # distros may split them off...
 require_mods(qw(DBD::SQLite IO::Socket::SSL Net::NNTP IO::Poll));
 Net::NNTP->can('starttls') or
 	plan skip_all => 'Net::NNTP does not support TLS';
-IO::Socket::SSL->VERSION(2.007) or
-	plan skip_all => 'IO::Socket::SSL <2.007 not supported by Net::NNTP';
 
 my $cert = 'certs/server-cert.pem';
 my $key = 'certs/server-key.pem';
diff --git a/t/nntpd.t b/t/nntpd.t
index c681b01c3d9d4eb40036ae9f8e98543c2f1bd07b..9d0ee2baa6d7eb22e47d37b509f52b3f66b22635 100644
--- a/t/nntpd.t
+++ b/t/nntpd.t
@@ -111,11 +111,6 @@ 	SKIP: {
 		$n->can('starttls') or
 			skip('Net::NNTP too old to support STARTTLS', 2);
 		require_mods('IO::Socket::SSL', 2);
-		eval {
-			IO::Socket::SSL->VERSION(2.007);
-		} or skip(<<EOF, 2);
-IO::Socket::SSL <2.007 not supported by Net::NNTP
-EOF
 		ok(!$n->starttls, 'STARTTLS fails when unconfigured');
 		is($n->code, 580, 'got 580 code on server w/o TLS');
 	};