Error Codes › Connection refused: no further information

Connection refused: no further information

JOIN-002 · Connection refused

'Connection refused: no further information' means the computer was reached but nothing was listening on that port. How to fix a wrong port, a stopped server, or a blocked connection.

What it looks like in the log

Failed to connect to the server
io.netty.channel.AbstractChannel$AnnotatedConnectException: Connection refused: no further information: /203.0.113.7:25565

What it means

Unlike a timeout, this one means an answer came back, and the answer was "no". The player's traffic reached a machine, and that machine told it that nothing is accepting connections on that port. So the network path mostly works; what is wrong is what sits at the other end.

How to fix it

The server isn't running. The most common cause by far. Start it and wait for the "Done" line in the console before sending anyone to join.
Wrong port. If server-port in server.properties isn't 25565, players must add it: your-address:25566. If you changed it recently, make sure the port forward was changed too.
The server failed to claim its port. Look for a "FAILED TO BIND TO PORT" line in the log; see FAILED TO BIND TO PORT.
The server is listening on the wrong address. Leave server-ip in server.properties empty unless you know you need it. A value there makes the server listen on one address only.
A firewall is actively rejecting it. Allow Java through the firewall; see the last steps of Connection timed out.
Different machine than you think. If the address is your public IP and your router answers "refused" itself, the port isn't forwarded to the PC running the server.

More help

Coalstack's Auto Debugger scans a Java server's log for known errors like this one and links straight to the fix. Download Coalstack to try it.