Ever wondered why we get a wget failed connection refused error?

This is a common error while downloading files from servers. It mainly occurs when no process listens to the port correctly, or port blocks in the firewall and so on.

At Bobcares, we often receive requests to solve the wget connection refused error as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s discuss the various reasons behind this error and see how our Support Engineers fix it for customers.

What causes wget failed connection refused error?

Wget comes handy to fetch files from remote servers. For instance, when installing a new program, we often need to fetch the installer package first using wget.

Many times, this can result in the connection refused error.

Here, wget fails on port 7183 of the server. Finding the ultimate cause of this error can be quite tricky.

So now, let’s discuss some major reasons that cause the wget connection refused error and their respective fixes.

1. No process is listening

Usually, this is the main reason for the connection refused message. For wget to work, the webserver must be listening correctly on port 80.

Recently, one of our customers approached us with a connection refused error in wget. Our Support Engineers checked and found that he was connecting to the correct server.

However, Apache was failing on the server. Thus no service was listening on port 80 of the server.

Initially, we started checking whether the httpd process was listening on the port correctly. We use the command,

netstat -tnlp | grep :80

No output means nothing listens to the given port.

So, we restarted the Apache server to make the service listen to the port correctly.

2. Listen to address in Webserver

Misconfigured Listen address in webserver can also create problems with wget.

For instance, when running Apache, we always make sure that the configuration file holds the correct “BindAddress” or “Listen” directive. If we specific IP(s) listed in the conf, then Apache will only listen to those IP addresses. Thus wget works only on those IPs.

3. Firewall errors

Sometimes, the firewall blocks certain ports. Blocking the port in the firewall can also cause wget failed connection refused error.

For such cases, the firewall responds with icmp-port-unreachable.

Usually, we use utilities like tcpdump to get the details of the connection refused message.

tcpdump -n host 1xx.13x.62.1 and port 22

This gives us the exact point at which the block appears. Then, we remove the port block from the respective server firewall. In other words, we open ports 22 and 80. Or if SSH runs on any custom port, we open it in the server firewall.

Therefore, this resolves the error and make wget working again.

[Need more assistance to solve wget failed connection refused?- We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

In short, the wget failed connection refused error occurs when no process listens to the port, firewall errors and so on. In today’s article, we discussed the main causes of this error and saw how our Support Engineers fix this error for our customers.