diff --git a/testsuite/testswap/lib/TestBed/XMLRPC/Client.pm b/testsuite/testswap/lib/TestBed/XMLRPC/Client.pm
index c57d0f3b13ddf61bb52cebea2c828eb049671892..1b8f87145b5cafc13d590bae901b31a4da08becf 100644
--- a/testsuite/testswap/lib/TestBed/XMLRPC/Client.pm
+++ b/testsuite/testswap/lib/TestBed/XMLRPC/Client.pm
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ package TestBed::XMLRPC::Client;
 use SemiModern::Perl;
 use Mouse;
 use RPC::XML::Client;
+use Net::SSL;
+use LWP::Protocol::https;
+use IO::Socket::SSL qw( SSL_VERIFY_NONE );
 use TBConfig;
 use Data::Dumper;
 use Carp;
@@ -40,12 +43,22 @@ BEGIN {
   use TBConfig;
   $ENV{HTTPS_CERT_FILE} = glob($TBConfig::SSL_CLIENT_CERT);
   $ENV{HTTPS_KEY_FILE}  = glob($TBConfig::SSL_CLIENT_KEY);
+  $ENV{HTTPS_DEBUG} = 0;
 }
 
 #constructs RPC::XML::Client with 10 minute socket timeout
 has 'client' => ( isa => 'RPC::XML::Client', is => 'rw', default => sub { 
   my $HTTP_TIMEOUT = $TBConfig::XMLRPC_SERVER_TIMEOUT;
-  my $c = RPC::XML::Client->new($TBConfig::XMLRPC_SERVER, 'timeout' => ($HTTP_TIMEOUT));
+  my $c = RPC::XML::Client->new($TBConfig::XMLRPC_SERVER, 
+				useragent => [
+				    ssl_opts => {
+					verify_hostname => 0,
+					SSL_verify_mode => SSL_VERIFY_NONE,
+				    },
+				],
+				error_handler => sub { die "Transport error: $_[0]" },
+				'timeout' => ($HTTP_TIMEOUT),
+      );
   $c->{'__useragent'}->timeout($HTTP_TIMEOUT);
   $c; } );
 
diff --git a/testsuite/testswap/t/xmlrpc/emulab.t b/testsuite/testswap/t/xmlrpc/emulab.t
index caab2ba871379c0c4aa7fe3de430d64e383f3e29..6bbf5e0d5f9a61d3ab7528a96832444f893e61f9 100644
--- a/testsuite/testswap/t/xmlrpc/emulab.t
+++ b/testsuite/testswap/t/xmlrpc/emulab.t
@@ -36,5 +36,6 @@ ok($emuclient, 'Emulab new works');
 isa_ok($emuclient, 'TestBed::XMLRPC::Client::Emulab');
 
 my $time = timegm(0,0,0,1,0,2008);
-my $resp = $emuclient->news('starting' => time2iso8601($time));
+my $utctime =>  time2iso8601($time); # chop off the Z
+my $resp = $emuclient->news('starting' => chop($utctime)); #? chop off the trailing Z
 ok($resp, 'Valid Emulab::new response');