ECONNREFUSED error with node.js that does not occur in other clients

I guess sometimes you just need to step away from the problem...

I found a solution, but it doesn't seem to answer the question, and I don't really like the it.

I changed the CherryPy server configuration to serve at 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost, and the node client started working.

I had the same problem. I was able to resolve it by replacing the localhost or 127.0.0.1 by my system's ip address(use ifconfig for the ip address).

I just faced the same problem.

Note that Windows 7 by default doesn't include an entry for localhost in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (wikipedia reference)

Adding the entry for localhost has no effect with Node.js (0.10.25) as it apparently skips the hosts file completely.

Use 127.0.0.1 as local address instead, this will works what ever is in your hosts file.

I disagree with Soman's disagreement.

I've been pulling my hair out on this one, but yes, sure enough nodejs v0.10.24 and v0.10.25 refuse to connect to a PHP 5.4 development server (PHP's command line server) when invoked as:

php -S localhost:8088

The browser, curl, everything else connects just fine. Yet, sure enough, changing the binding address to be:

php -S 127.0.0.1:8088 

And nodejs' using xmlrpc connects just fine. This occurred on a Mac OS X 10.9.1. Very odd.