Problems Encountered When Downloading Data

Below are some common problems when downloading data.

Wget complains about certificate verification. What do I do?

If you are using Wget 1.10 or higher, you will need to include the "--no-check-certificate" option on the Wget command line. If you downloaded a script from us with Wget commands, you can add "--no-check-certificate" to the opts variable once and it will apply to all of the Wget commands in the script.

Why does Wget give me the error: "Unsupported scheme"?

You are using a version of Wget that was not compiled with SSL support. You will either need to recompile your Wget with SSL support turned on, or you will need to obtain an executable that was compiled with SSL. If neither of these is an option, you can use this form to authenticate and create the cookies file that Wget needs when you download data from our web server. Save the cookies file to your computer and then load it from your Wget commands that download the data files.

My version of Wget does not recognize the --post-data option. How do I authenticate?

You can use this form to authenticate and create the cookies file that Wget needs when you download data from our web server. Save the cookies file to your computer and then load it from your Wget commands that download the data files.

Why am I getting a '403 Forbidden' error when I try to download data files?

This error usually happens when you have not authenticated before you try to download data, and is commonly caused by sending a bad password when you authenticate. Before contacting us, please verify that you are sending the correct email address/password combination. If you have special characters in your password, you may need to escape them, depending on the shell that you are using. If you don't know what characters are special to your shell, then don't use special characters in your password.

Why am I getting a '429 Too Many Requests' error when I try to download data files?

Each user is limited to 10 concurrent data downloads. You are exceeding this limit, and doing so repeatedly could cause your IP address to be blocked.

Why do I get a "Not Authorized" error when I try to access data?

This error means that the IP address from which you are connecting has been blocked due to some kind of bad behavior. This usually means that a user on this IP address is flooding our system with requests for data. Please see the FAQs about using a download manager and about the "429" error for more information on how to responsibly download data. For now, you will need to connect from a different IP address.