New to Python requests library, getting '[Errno 61] Connection refused'

Question

I’ve searched high and low and can’t find a fix that seems to fit my use case. I’ve had some Python3 install issues on my M1 mac but think it’s now running okay.

Just trying to learn / work with the requests library, but when I try to run this very simple python code:

import requests

response = requests.get("https://api.open-notify.org/this-api-doesnt-exist")
print(response.status_code)

I get the below error…

Any advice on how to fix this? I’m pulling my hair out.

Thank you!

/Users/myname/venv/python310/bin/python /Users/myname/Documents/2022_api/api01.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connection.py", line 174, in _new_conn
    conn = connection.create_connection(
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/util/connection.py", line 95, in create_connection
    raise err
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/util/connection.py", line 85, in create_connection
    sock.connect(sa)
ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 61] Connection refused

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 703, in urlopen
    httplib_response = self._make_request(
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 386, in _make_request
    self._validate_conn(conn)
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 1040, in _validate_conn
    conn.connect()
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connection.py", line 358, in connect
    conn = self._new_conn()
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connection.py", line 186, in _new_conn
    raise NewConnectionError(
urllib3.exceptions.NewConnectionError: <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x10f5a0850>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 61] Connection refused

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/requests/adapters.py", line 440, in send
    resp = conn.urlopen(
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 785, in urlopen
    retries = retries.increment(
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/urllib3/util/retry.py", line 592, in increment
    raise MaxRetryError(_pool, url, error or ResponseError(cause))
urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='api.open-notify.org', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /this-api-doesnt-exist (Caused by NewConnectionError('<urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x10f5a0850>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 61] Connection refused'))

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/myname/Documents/2022_api/api01.py", line 3, in <module>
    response = requests.get("https://api.open-notify.org/this-api-doesnt-exist")
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 75, in get
    return request('get', url, params=params, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 61, in request
    return session.request(method=method, url=url, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 529, in request
    resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 645, in send
    r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/myname/venv/python310/lib/python3.10/site-packages/requests/adapters.py", line 519, in send
    raise ConnectionError(e, request=request)
requests.exceptions.ConnectionError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='api.open-notify.org', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /this-api-doesnt-exist (Caused by NewConnectionError('<urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x10f5a0850>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 61] Connection refused'))

Process finished with exit code 1

Asked By: carbine

||

Source

Answer 1

Connection Refused means that the host (api.open-notify.org) is not listening on the port (https is on port 443) in your request.

I tried connecting to port 80 (plain http) instead and that worked for me:

>>> response = requests.get("http://api.open-notify.org/this-api-doesnt-exist")
>>> print(response.status_code)
404

For laughs, I tried connecting to the base url

>>> response = requests.get("http://api.open-notify.org")
>>> print(response.status_code)
500
>>> response
<Response [500]>
>>> response.text
'<html>rn<head><title>500 Internal Server Error</title></head>rn<body bgcolor="white">rn<center><h1>500 Internal Server Error</h1></center>rn<hr><center>nginx/1.10.3</center>rn</body>rn</html>rn'

Answered By: James McPherson

Answer 2

Sorry, but that doesn’t solve the issue posted here.

Changing the URL to the base URI does not really work when one needs particular data off that specific URL. In this case: " http://api.open-notify.org/this-api-doesnt-exist"

Answered By: Shankar Ganapathy

New to Python requests library, getting '[Errno 61] Connection refused'

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