diff --git a/src/nemosis/defaults.py b/src/nemosis/defaults.py
index 8d3c16f..f0fc1ad 100644
--- a/src/nemosis/defaults.py
+++ b/src/nemosis/defaults.py
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@
     "_downloader.download_xl": "https://www.aemo.com.au/-/media/Files/Electricity/NEM/Participant_Information/NEM-Registration-and-Exemption-List.xls",
 }
 
-aemo_mms_url = "http://www.nemweb.com.au/Data_Archive/Wholesale_Electricity/MMSDM/{}/MMSDM_{}_{}/MMSDM_Historical_Data_SQLLoader/DATA/{}.zip"
+aemo_mms_url = "https://www.nemweb.com.au/Data_Archive/Wholesale_Electricity/MMSDM/{}/MMSDM_{}_{}/MMSDM_Historical_Data_SQLLoader/DATA/{}.zip"
 
 current_data_page_urls = {
     "BIDDING": "Reports/Current/Bidmove_Complete/",
@@ -144,9 +144,9 @@
     "INTERMITTENT_GEN_SCADA": "/Reports/Current/Next_Day_Intermittent_Gen_Scada/"
 }
 
-fcas_4_url = "http://www.nemweb.com.au/Reports/Current/Causer_Pays/FCAS_{}{}{}{}.zip"
+fcas_4_url = "https://www.nemweb.com.au/Reports/Current/Causer_Pays/FCAS_{}{}{}{}.zip"
 
-fcas_4_url_hist = "http://www.nemweb.com.au/Data_Archive/Wholesale_Electricity/FCAS_Causer_Pays/{}/FCAS_Causer_Pays_{}_{}/FCAS_{}{}{}{}.zip"
+fcas_4_url_hist = "https://www.nemweb.com.au/Data_Archive/Wholesale_Electricity/FCAS_Causer_Pays/{}/FCAS_Causer_Pays_{}_{}/FCAS_{}{}{}{}.zip"
 
 data_url = {
     "DISPATCHLOAD": "aemo_data_url",
diff --git a/src/nemosis/downloader.py b/src/nemosis/downloader.py
index dac391c..36a4f4d 100644
--- a/src/nemosis/downloader.py
+++ b/src/nemosis/downloader.py
@@ -10,14 +10,16 @@
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+session = requests.Session()
+
 # Windows Chrome for User-Agent request headers
-USR_AGENT_HEADER = {
+session.headers.update({
     "User-Agent": (
         "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)"
         + " AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) "
         + "Chrome/80.0.3987.87 Safari/537.36"
     )
-}
+})
 
 
 def run(year, month, day, chunk, index, filename_stub, down_load_to):
@@ -95,7 +97,7 @@ def _get_current_url(filename_stub, current_page_url):
 def _download_and_unpack_bid_move_complete_files(
     download_url, down_load_to
 ):
-    r = requests.get(download_url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(download_url)
     zipped_file = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(r.content))
 
     file_name = zipped_file.namelist()[
@@ -131,7 +133,7 @@ def _download_and_unpack_bid_move_complete_files(
 def _download_and_unpack_next_region_tables(
     download_url, down_load_to
 ):
-    r = requests.get(download_url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(download_url)
     zipped_file = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(r.content))
 
     file_name = zipped_file.namelist()[
@@ -160,7 +162,7 @@ def _download_and_unpack_next_region_tables(
 def _download_and_unpack_next_dispatch_load_files_complete_files(
     download_url, down_load_to
 ):
-    r = requests.get(download_url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(download_url)
     zipped_file = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(r.content))
 
     file_name = zipped_file.namelist()[
@@ -185,7 +187,7 @@ def _download_and_unpack_next_dispatch_load_files_complete_files(
 def _download_and_unpack_intermittent_gen_scada_file(
     download_url, down_load_to
 ):
-    r = requests.get(download_url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(download_url)
     zipped_file = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(r.content))
 
     file_name = zipped_file.namelist()[
@@ -253,7 +255,7 @@ def download_unzip_csv(url, down_load_to):
     extracts the csv and saves it a specified location
     """
     url = url.replace('#', '%23')
-    r = requests.get(url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(url)
     z = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(r.content))
     z.extractall(down_load_to)
 
@@ -263,19 +265,19 @@ def download_csv(url, path_and_name):
     This function downloads a zipped csv using a url,
     extracts the csv and saves it a specified location
     """
-    r = requests.get(url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(url)
     with open(path_and_name, "wb") as f:
         f.write(r.content)
 
 
 def download_elements_file(url, path_and_name):
-    page = requests.get(url)
+    page = session.get(url)
     text = page.text
     soup = BeautifulSoup(text, "html.parser")
     links = soup.find_all("a")
     last_file_name = links[-1].text
     link = url + last_file_name
-    r = requests.get(link, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(link)
     with open(path_and_name, "wb") as f:
         f.write(r.content)
 
@@ -285,7 +287,7 @@ def download_xl(url, path_and_name):
     This function downloads a zipped csv using a url, extracts the csv and
     saves it a specified location
     """
-    r = requests.get(url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(url)
     with open(path_and_name, "wb") as f:
         f.write(r.content)
 
@@ -301,12 +303,12 @@ def format_aemo_url(url, year, month, filename_stub):
 
 
 def status_code_return(url):
-    r = requests.get(url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(url)
     return r.status_code
 
 
 def _get_matching_link(url, stub_link):
-    r = requests.get(url, headers=USR_AGENT_HEADER)
+    r = session.get(url)
     soup = BeautifulSoup(r.content, "html.parser")
     links = [link.get("href") for link in soup.find_all("a")]
     for link in links: