Python 3.13 Requests Connection Reset By Peer [Solved]

Symptoms & Diagnosis

Developers upgrading to Python 3.13 have reported an uptick in requests.exceptions.ConnectionError, specifically the “Connection reset by peer” variant. This issue frequently occurs when running scripts on unstable WiFi connections where momentary signal drops cause the socket to terminate unexpectedly.

In Python 3.13, changes to the underlying ssl and socket modules have made the runtime more sensitive to ungraceful TCP closures. When your WiFi drops, the operating system may send a Reset (RST) packet, which Python 3.13 now surfaces more aggressively than previous versions.

Troubleshooting Guide

To diagnose whether the issue is specific to Python 3.13 or your local environment, first check your system logs for network interface flapping. You can monitor network events in real-time to see if the reset coincides with a WiFi handover or drop.

# Check system logs for WiFi disconnects on Linux
journalctl -u NetworkManager | grep -i "disconnected"

# Check Python version and installed requests version
python3 --version
pip show requests urllib3

If the connection is dropping, the most effective workaround is implementing a custom HTTPAdapter with a backoff strategy. This ensures that a momentary WiFi blip doesn’t crash your entire script. Python 3.13 requires more explicit retry logic for handles that were previously masked by older socket implementations.

# Example: Implementing Retries for Python 3.13
import requests
from urllib3.util import Retry
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter

s = requests.Session()
retries = Retry(total=5, backoff_factor=1, status_forcelist=[502, 503, 504])
s.mount('https://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries))

try:
    response = s.get('https://example.com')
    print(response.status_code)
except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError as e:
    print(f"Connection Reset Detected: {e}")

Verify SSL/TLS Configuration

Python 3.13 has updated its default SSL context. If your server doesn’t support the newer TLS 1.3 features properly, it might reset the connection. Try testing your script on a wired connection to rule out WiFi hardware failure.

Prevention

Preventing “Connection reset by peer” in Python 3.13 involves both software resilience and environment optimization. Since WiFi is inherently lossy, your code must be designed to be idempotent—allowing for multiple attempts without side effects.

Update your urllib3 library to the latest version. Python 3.13 works best with urllib3 v2.x, which includes better handling for the new garbage collection and socket behavior introduced in this release.

Finally, consider adjusting the TCP keepalive settings on your machine. This helps the OS maintain a “heartbeat” during periods of WiFi inactivity, preventing the peer from timing out and sending a reset signal when the WiFi signal returns.