diff --git a/Lib/random.py b/Lib/random.py
index 76dc41699a50..7932ac71e9d0 100644
--- a/Lib/random.py
+++ b/Lib/random.py
@@ -94,6 +94,9 @@ class Random(_random.Random):
         If a is not None or an int or long, hash(a) is used instead.
         """
 
+        if a is None:
+            import time
+            a = long(time.time() * 256) # use fractional seconds
         super(Random, self).seed(a)
         self.gauss_next = None
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_random.py b/Lib/test/test_random.py
index ea2243d1de91..c9103e8f87b7 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_random.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_random.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ class TestBasicOps(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_autoseed(self):
         self.gen.seed()
         state1 = self.gen.getstate()
-        time.sleep(1.1)
+        time.sleep(0.1)
         self.gen.seed()      # diffent seeds at different times
         state2 = self.gen.getstate()
         self.assertNotEqual(state1, state2)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 1de08e7249f6..93c7fb8b8d59 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ Extension modules
 Library
 -------
 
+- random.seed() with no arguments or None uses time.time() as a default
+  seed.  Modified to match Py2.2 behavior and use fractional seconds so
+  that successive runs are more likely to produce different sequences.
+
 - itertools.izip() with no arguments now returns an empty iterator instead
   of raising a TypeError exception.