diff --git a/offlineimap/imapserver.py b/offlineimap/imapserver.py
index 0713eb8..a235fd5 100644
--- a/offlineimap/imapserver.py
+++ b/offlineimap/imapserver.py
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@ import socket
 import base64
 
 from socket import gaierror
+try:
+    from ssl import SSLError
+except ImportError:
+    # Protect against python<2.6, use dummy and won't get SSL errors.
+    SSLError = None
 
 try:
     # do we have a recent pykerberos?