newbie - winsock error 10054 - connection reset by peer

[Thom Wysong]

I'm attempting to run a simple "Fetch Data via HTTP" example on p.283 of the
book "Python Programming on Win32". It is ending in a "10054, winsock
error". I don't know what's causing this or how to fix it. I'm hoping
someone can help.

I'm running Win98 on a Gateway laptop, connected to the Internet with MSN.

First, I typed in the following, which went fine...
-------------------------
Python 1.5.2 (#0, Apr 13 1999, 10:51:12) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
>>>
>>> import httplib
>>> http=httplib.HTTP('www.python.org')
>>>
>>> http.putrequest('GET', '/index.html')
>>> http.putrequest('Accept', 'text/html')
>>> http.putrequest('Accept', 'text/plain')
>>> http.endheaders()
>>>
-------------------------

Next, the screen is supposed to look like this....
-------------------------
>>> errcode, errmsg, headers = http.getreply()
>>> print errcode, errmsg, headers
200  OK  <mimetools.Message instance at 1073680>
>>>
-------------------------

However, what actually happens is this...
-------------------------
>>> errcode, errmsg, headers = http.getreply()
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#9>", line 1, in ?
    errcode, errmsg, headers = http.getreply()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Lib\httplib.py", line 121, in getreply
    line = self.file.readline()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Lib\plat-win\socket.py", line 117, in
readline
    new = self._sock.recv(self._rbufsize)
error: (10054, 'winsock error')
>>>
-------------------------

The winsock error 10054 shows up for no apparent reason. The page at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q150/5/37.asp states that
winsock error 10054 means "Connection reset by peer".

Does anyone have any idea what causes this or how to fix it?

Thanks,
tgw