Node.js Error: connect ECONNREFUSED

86
votes

I am new to node and running into this error on a simple tutorial.

I am on the OS X 10.8.2 trying this from CodeRunner and the Terminal. I have also tried putting my module in the node_modules folder.

I can tell this is some kind of connection problem but I have no idea why?

events.js:71
        throw arguments[1]; // Unhandled 'error' event
                       ^
Error: connect ECONNREFUSED
    at errnoException (net.js:770:11)
    at Object.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (net.js:761:19)

app.js:

var makeRequest = require('./make_request');

makeRequest("Here's looking at you, kid");
makeRequest("Hello, this is dog");

make_request.js:

var http = require('http');

var makeRequest = function(message) {

    //var message = "Here's looking at you, kid.";
    var options = {
        host: 'localhost', port: 8080, path:'/', method: 'POST'
    }

    var request = http.request(options, function(response) {
        response.on('data', function(data) {
            console.log(data);
        });
    });
    request.write(message);
    request.end();
};

module.exports = makeRequest;
11
javascriptnode.js
I also put this code up on https://c9.io/ and get the same error. – ian
Open for incoming our out coming or what? Same issue on a node server using the service defined ports and host. If you actually know what is going on here post a real solution not vague comments as stated in the question I am new to node. – ian
@ian, Nowhere in your cod are you creating a server. So, what do you have running on port 8080 that you are trying to connect to? – Brad
For any future readers I was trying to make an API request to a PHP server and my request port was not set to 80. Once changed my http requests worked fine. – Michael J. Calkins

11 Answers

54
votes

Chances are you are struggling with the node.js dying whenever the server you are calling refuses to connect. Try this:

process.on('uncaughtException', function (err) {
    console.log(err);
});

This keeps your server running and also give you a place to attach the debugger and look for a deeper problem.

11
votes

I was having the same issue with ghost and heroku.

heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production

solved it!

Check your config and env that the server is running on.

9
votes

You're trying to connect to localhost:8080 ... is any service running on your localhost and on this port? If not, the connection is refused which cause this error. I would suggest to check if there is anything running on localhost:8080 first.

6
votes

You need to have a server running on port 8080 when you run the code above that simply returns the request back through the response. Copy the code below to a separate file (say 'server.js') and start this server using the node command (node server.js). You can then separately run your code above (node app.js) from a separate command line.

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function(request, response){

    //The following code will print out the incoming request text
    request.pipe(response);

}).listen(8080, '127.0.0.1');

console.log('Listening on port 8080...');
6
votes

Sometimes it may occur, if there is any database connection in your code but you did not start the database server yet.

Im my case i have some piece of code to connect with mongodb

mongoose.connect("mongodb://localhost:27017/demoDb");

after i started the mongodb server with the command mongod this error is gone

4
votes

If you are on MEAN (Mongo-Express-AngularJS-Node) stack, run mongod first, and this error message will go away.

1
votes

People run into this error when the Node.js process is still running and they are attempting to start the server again. Try this:

ps aux | grep node

This will print something along the lines of:

user    7668  4.3  1.0  42060 10708 pts/1    Sl+  20:36   0:00 node server
user    7749  0.0  0.0   4384   832 pts/8    S+   20:37   0:00 grep --color=auto node

In this case, the process will be the one with the pid 7668. To kill it and restart the server, run kill -9 7668.

1
votes

Check with starting mysql in terminal. Use below command

mysql-ctl start

In my case its worked

0
votes

The Unhandled 'error' event is referring not providing a function to the request to pass errors. Without this event the node process ends with the error instead of failing gracefully and providing actual feedback. You can set the event just before the request.write line to catch any issues:

request.on('error', function(err)
{
    console.log(err);
});

More examples below:

https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback

0
votes

Run server.js from a different command line and client.js from a different command line

0
votes

Had a similar issue, it turned out the listening port printed was different from what it actually was. Typos in the request string or listening function might make the target server appear to not exist.