diff --git a/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py b/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py
index e70eae800367840..0c3e5d928909358 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py
@@ -65,9 +65,17 @@ def read(self):
             f = urllib.request.urlopen(self.url)
         except urllib.error.HTTPError as err:
             if err.code in (401, 403):
+                # If access to robot.txt has the status Unauthorized/Forbidden,
+                # then most likely this applies to the entire site.
                 self.disallow_all = True
-            elif err.code >= 400 and err.code < 500:
+            elif 400 <= err.code < 500:
+                # RFC 9309, Section 2.3.1.3: the crawler MAY access any
+                # resources on the server.
                 self.allow_all = True
+            elif 500 <= err.code < 600:
+                # RFC 9309, Section 2.3.1.4: the crawler MUST assume
+                # complete disallow.
+                self.disallow_all = True
             err.close()
         else:
             raw = f.read()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-05-20-50-35.gh-issue-79638.Y-JfaH.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-05-20-50-35.gh-issue-79638.Y-JfaH.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..bd9fff0bc2e31b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-05-20-50-35.gh-issue-79638.Y-JfaH.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Disallow all access in :mod:`urllib.robotparser` if the ``robots.txt`` file
+is unreachable due to server or network errors.