Python3 Wolframalpha Giving Error: urllib.error.URLError

Question

Alright so a few days ago I wrote this code and it worked fine.

import wolframalpha

app_id = "MY-APP-ID-HERE"

client = wolframalpha.Client(app_id)

my_input = input("Question: ")

res = client.query(my_input)

Then today it just stopped working, randomly and started throwing this error.

urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [Errno 101] Network is unreachable>

Why is this happening I didn't even modify the code or anything and my Wifi is up and my other devices are working on it fine.

i'm on a Raspberry Pi, running Raspbian Pixel. Is wolfram alpha down or patching a bug.

Answer 1

"Network is unreachable" - urllib is unable to physically connect to the service.

Typically this is because some hardware link between you and the remote site is down.

To debug this, a good start is to simply try and open the page in your browser (or ping the server). It's likely you will receive the same error. If that doesn't work, try a different site - narrow the problem down to what you can connect to, and what is not reachable. Can you even connect to something else in your house?

It could be a whole lot of local issues, like cable unplugged, modem offline, duplicated IP addresses, etc. etc. But my guess is that it's a localised problem to you. Yes it's possible that your ISP is down, or your country's link was cut, but that's far less likely.