What does a RetrievalFailure[nodat] mean?

Questions
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1

Hi everyone,

Can I please have help with the following question?
I can’t access all the data I want to from the internet, especially Wolfram Data Repository. However, my connectivity is not necessarily flawed. When I go to “Test Internet Connectivity” it returns a success message, and these following items also return meaningful answers through my internet connection:

Import["http://www.stephenwolfram.com/img/homepage/stephen-wolfram-\
portrait.png"]
CountryData[Entity["Country", "United States"], "Flag"]
WikipediaData["computers"]

However, when I try other methods of accessing data, specifically the following example included in the Eiwl book: Entity[“AnatomicalStructure”,

 "Skull"]["Graphics3D"], or when I enter SpeciesData[
 Entity["Species", "Family:Elephantidae"], "AlternateCommonNames"], I get the following error message:
EntityValue::nodat: Unable to download data. Some or all results may be missing. 
Missing["RetrievalFailure"]

I have Chrome 48 and Mathematica 11, with a fully functional browser. I have a perfectly working connection and can access Wolfram|Alpha just fine.

Thanks.

2

I had the same issue in Mathematica 11.3,
but the problem indeed was connection: in my case it was unsynchronised time/date in operation system (Windows 7).
In that case you would also notice problems with connecting to any https:// website.

I hope that might help.