diff --git a/src/libcalamares/network/Tests.cpp b/src/libcalamares/network/Tests.cpp
index 2350b79e8..e21a03bab 100644
--- a/src/libcalamares/network/Tests.cpp
+++ b/src/libcalamares/network/Tests.cpp
@@ -47,8 +47,25 @@ NetworkTests::testPing()
     using namespace CalamaresUtils::Network;
     Logger::setupLogLevel( Logger::LOGVERBOSE );
     auto& nam = Manager::instance();
+
+    // On FreeBSD, the SSL handling depends on the presence of root keys
+    // (from the ca_nss port) which may not be available. So HTTPS requests
+    // may fail with SSLVerificationError; this breaks the tests even if
+    // the point is to just check whether ping() works.
+    //
+    // So fall back to pinging example.com if the normal ping fails.
     auto canPing_www_kde_org
         = nam.synchronousPing( QUrl( "https://www.kde.org" ), RequestOptions( RequestOptions::FollowRedirect ) );
     cDebug() << "Ping:" << canPing_www_kde_org;
-    QVERIFY( canPing_www_kde_org );
+    if ( canPing_www_kde_org.status == RequestStatus::HttpError )
+    {
+        cDebug() << Logger::SubEntry << "Some HTTP failure, try example.com instead.";
+        auto canPing_example_com
+            = nam.synchronousPing( QUrl( "http://example.com" ), RequestOptions( RequestOptions::FollowRedirect ) );
+        QVERIFY( canPing_example_com );
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        QVERIFY( canPing_www_kde_org );
+    }
 }