Socket Error 10061 when testing an alert

Question

I'm getting a 'Socket Error # 10061, Connection refused' whenever I test email alerts.

Solution

The 10061 (Connection Refused) usually happens when the SMTP server refuses the connection from the client (PingPlotter or MultiPing).

This can happen for a variety of reasons - most likely a software firewall between you and the server, or maybe the SMTP server doesn't like the computer that PingPlotter Pro is running on, or some part of the message it's sending.

McAfee's latest (2009) release has been causing this error for some people, so if you've recently upgraded or installed, make sure you add PingPlotter.exe or MultiPing.exe to the exclusion list in McAfee.

This error message is very similar to the socket error 10053 error, also covered in our knowledge base.