diff --git a/Lib/urllib.py b/Lib/urllib.py
index c12f4519cca..ad1e791386c 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib.py
@@ -773,7 +773,7 @@ def splithost(url):
     global _hostprog
     if _hostprog is None:
         import re
-        _hostprog = re.compile('^//([^/]+)(.*)$')
+        _hostprog = re.compile('^//([^/]*)(.*)$')
 
     match = _hostprog.match(url) 
     if match: return match.group(1, 2)