diff --git a/engine/Makefile b/engine/Makefile
index 6040c58d7..5e4ecbfba 100644
--- a/engine/Makefile
+++ b/engine/Makefile
@@ -1092,6 +1092,11 @@ ifeq (1,$(LINK_OPENSSL))
     endif
 endif
 
+# bad hack -- make sure we build sspi if we're building windows sdl
+ifeq (win_SDL,$(findstring win,$(FTE_TARGET))$(findstring _SDL,$(FTE_TARGET)))
+	COMMON_OBJS += net_ssl_winsspi.o
+endif
+
 ifeq (1,$(shell $(PKGCONFIG) --exists gnutls && echo 1))
     ALL_CFLAGS+=$(shell $(PKGCONFIG) gnutls --cflags --silence-errors)
     #ALL_CFLAGS+=-DGNUTLS_STATIC
diff --git a/engine/common/bothdefs.h b/engine/common/bothdefs.h
index 809e238d8..d77c481be 100644
--- a/engine/common/bothdefs.h
+++ b/engine/common/bothdefs.h
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
 //#if !(defined(__linux__) || defined(__CYGWIN__)) || defined(ANDROID)
 //	#undef HAVE_GNUTLS
 //#endif
-#if !defined(_WIN32) || (defined(_MSC_VER) && (_MSC_VER < 1300)) || defined(FTE_SDL)
+#if !defined(_WIN32) || (defined(_MSC_VER) && (_MSC_VER < 1300))
 	#undef HAVE_WINSSPI
 #endif
 //subservers only has code for win32 threads and linux