diff --git a/external_libraries.py b/external_libraries.py
index e49a146f1..9f0849527 100644
--- a/external_libraries.py
+++ b/external_libraries.py
@@ -1,10 +1,17 @@
+import logging
+import logging.config
 import urllib2
 import re
 import os
 
 from _init import STATIC_FONTS_DIR, STATIC_LDN_DIR
+from util.log import logfile_path
+
+
 LOCAL_PATH = '/static/ldn/'
 
+MAX_RETRY_COUNT = 3
+
 EXTERNAL_JS = [
   'code.jquery.com/jquery.js',
   'netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.2/js/bootstrap.min.js',
@@ -56,6 +63,9 @@ EXTERNAL_CSS_FONTS = [
 ]
 
 
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
 def get_external_javascript(local=False):
   if local:
     return [LOCAL_PATH + format_local_name(src) for src in EXTERNAL_JS]
@@ -82,11 +92,24 @@ def format_local_name(url):
   return filename
 
 
+def _download_url(url):
+  for index in range(0, MAX_RETRY_COUNT):
+    try:
+      response = urllib2.urlopen(url)
+      return response.read()
+    except urllib2.URLError:
+      logger.exception('Got exception when trying to download URL %s (try #%s)', url, index + 1)
+
+  raise Exception('Aborted due to maximum retries reached')
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
+  logging.config.fileConfig(logfile_path(debug=False), disable_existing_loggers=False)
+
+
   for url in EXTERNAL_JS + EXTERNAL_CSS:
       print 'Downloading %s' % url
-      response = urllib2.urlopen('https://' + url)
-      contents = response.read()
+      contents = _download_url('https://' + url)
 
       filename = format_local_name(url)
       print 'Writing %s' % filename
@@ -95,16 +118,16 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
 
   for url in EXTERNAL_CSS_FONTS:
       print 'Downloading %s' % url
-      response = urllib2.urlopen('https://' + url)
+      contents = _download_url('https://' + url)
 
       filename = os.path.basename(url).split('?')[0]
       with open(STATIC_LDN_DIR + filename, "wb") as local_file:
-        local_file.write(response.read())
+        local_file.write(contents)
 
   for url in EXTERNAL_FONTS:
       print 'Downloading %s' % url
-      response = urllib2.urlopen('https://' + url)
+      contents = _download_url('https://' + url)
 
       filename = os.path.basename(url).split('?')[0]
       with open(STATIC_FONTS_DIR + filename, "wb") as local_file:
-        local_file.write(response.read())
+        local_file.write(contents)