Could not transfer artifact org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:pom:2.7.1 from/to central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

Simplify things by using the following settings.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0" 
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                              http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">

 <proxies>
    <proxy>
      <id>myproxy</id>
      <active>true</active>
      <protocol>http</protocol>
      <username>user</username>  <!-- Put your username here -->
      <password>pass</password>  <!-- Put your password here -->
      <host>123.45.6.78</host>   <!-- Put the IP address of your proxy server here -->
      <port>80</port>            <!-- Put your proxy server's port number here -->
      <nonProxyHosts>local.net|some.host.com</nonProxyHosts> <!-- Do not use this setting unless you know what you're doing. -->
    </proxy>    
  </proxies> 
</settings>

Under Linux/Unix, place it under ~/.m2/settings.xml. Under Windows place it under c:\documents and settings\youruser\.m2\settings.xml or c:\users\youruser\.m2\settings.xml.

You don't need the <mirrors/>, <profiles/> and <settings/> sections, unless you really know what they're for.

This is solved for me when I update maven and check the option "Force update of Snapshots/Releases" in Eclipse. this clears all errors. So right click on project -> Maven -> update project, then check the above option -> Ok. Hope this helps you.

It seems like your Maven is unable to connect to Maven repository at http://repo1.maven.org/maven2.

If you are using proxy and can access the link with browser the same settings need to be applied to Spring Source Tool Suite (if you are running within suite) or Maven.

For Maven proxy setting create a settings.xml in the .m2 directory with following details

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                      http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
  <proxies>
    <proxy>
      <active>true</active>
      <protocol>http</protocol>
      <host>PROXY</host>
      <port>3120</port>
      <nonProxyHosts>maven</nonProxyHosts>
    </proxy>
  </proxies>
</settings>

If you are not using proxy and can access the link with browser, remove any proxy settings described above.