WSAECONNREFUSED No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

One possible cause of this socket connect error is when an Anti-Virus program blocks the connection. This can happen if the AV program is blocking the outbound port. If some programs can connect to a given remote host:port, but your application cannot, then check your Anti-Virus program to see if exceptions were made for specific programs, but not for your application’s EXE.