diff --git a/rank_progress.py b/rank_progress.py
--- a/rank_progress.py
+++ b/rank_progress.py
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
+import sys
 import re
 import io
 from itertools import groupby
 from datetime import datetime
 import shutil
 import argparse
+from zipfile import ZipFile
 import urllib.request
-from zipfile import ZipFile
+from urllib.error import URLError
 
 
 class Record:
@@ -149,10 +151,18 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
 	else:
 		url = "https://europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/EGD_2_0/downloads/hisgor.zip"
 		print("Downloading data from {} ...".format(url))
-		with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as f:
-			compressed_data = f.read()
-			with ZipFile(io.BytesIO(compressed_data)) as g:
-				s = g.read("all.hst").decode("utf-8")
+		try:
+			with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as f:
+				compressed_data = f.read()
+				with ZipFile(io.BytesIO(compressed_data)) as g:
+					s = g.read("all.hst").decode("utf-8")
+		except URLError as e:
+			print(
+				"* Failed to connect to the server. "
+				"You can try again later or download {} and run the program with the -f parameter.\n"
+				"The error message:\n{}".format(url, e)
+			)
+			sys.exit(1)
 
 	print("Processing...")
 	main(s, since, to, args)