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simple socket programming exercise for TCP connections in Python; Error: "No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it"

*Before you mark as duplicate please note that I am referencing this similar question found here:
Python Socket Programming - ConnectionRefusedError: [WinError 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it
unfortunately but have found anything in that post that provides a solution to my problem.
I am working on a very basic exercise designed to familiarize students with programming related to networks. This particular assignment is a common one as is described as follows:
In this assignment, you will learn the basics of socket programming for TCP connections in Python: how to create a socket, bind it to a specific address and port, as well as send and receive an HTTP packet. You will also learn some basics of HTTP header format. You can only use Python3.
You will develop a web server that handles one HTTP request at a time. Your web server should accept and parse the HTTP request, get the requested file from the server’s file system, create an HTTP response message consisting of the requested file preceded by header lines, and then send the response directly to the client. If the requested file is not present in the server, the server should send an HTTP “404 Not Found” message back to the client.
Part one specification:
Put the attached HTML file (named HelloWorld.html) in the same directory in which the server webserver.py runs. Run the server program. Determine the IP address of the host that is running the server (e.g., 128.238.251.26 or localhost). From another host, open a browser and provide the corresponding URL. For example: http://128.238.251.26:6789/HelloWorld.html. You can open a browser in the same host where the server runs and use the following http://localhost:6789/HelloWorld.html.
‘HelloWorld.html’ is the name of the file you placed in the server directory. Note also the use of the port number after the colon. You need to replace this port number with the port number that was assigned to you. In the above example, we have used port number 6789. The browser should then display the contents of HelloWorld.html. If you omit “:6789”, the browser will assume port 80 (why?), and you will get the web page from the server only if your server is listening at port 80.
Then try to get a file that is not present on the server (e.g., test.html). You should get a “404 File Not Found” message.
Part Two specification:
Write your own HTTP client to test your server. Your client will connect to the server using a TCP connection, send an HTTP request to the server, and display the server response as an output. You can assume that the HTTP request sent is a GET method. The client should take command line arguments specifying the server IP address or hostname, the port at which the server is listening, and the HTTP file name (e.g., test.html or HelloWorld.html). The following is an input command format to run the client. webclient.py <server_host> <server_port>
My code is for the Webserver is as follows:
#import socket module
from socket import *
import sys # In order to terminate the program
serverSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM)
# Prepare a sever socket
# Fill in start
serverHost = '192.168.1.4'
serverPort = 56014
serverSocket.bind((serverHost, serverPort))
serverSocket.listen(5)
# Fill in end
while True:
#establish connection
print('The server is ready to receive')
connectionSocket, addr = serverSocket.accept() # Fill in start #Fill in end
try:
message = connectionSocket.recv(4096) # Fill in start #Fill in end
filename = message.split()[1]
f = open(filename[1:])
outputdata = f.readlines() # Fill in start #Fill in end
# send one http header line in to the socket
# Fill in start
connectionSocket.send("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n")
connectionSocket.send("\r\n")
# Fill in end
# Send the content of the requested file to the connection socket
for i in range(0, len(outputdata)):
connectionSocket.send(outputdata[i].encode())
connectionSocket.send("\r\n".encode())
connectionSocket.close()
except IOError:
# Send HTTP response code and message for file not found
# Fill in start
connectionSocket.send("HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n")
connectionSocket.send("Content-Type: text/html\r\n")
connectionSocket.send("\r\n")
connectionSocket.send("<html><head></head><body><h1>404 Not Found</h1></body></html><\r\n>")
# Fill in end
# Close the client connection socket
# Fill in start
serverSocket.close()
# Fill in end
serverSocket.close()
sys.exit() # Terminate the program after sending the corresponding data
My code for the Webclient is as follows:
from socket import *
import sys
serverName = sys.argv[1]
serverPort = int(sys.argv[2])
fileName = sys.argv[3]
request = "GET "+str(fileName)+" HTTP/1.1"
clientSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM)
clientSocket.connect((serverName, serverPort))
clientSocket.send(request.encode())
returnFromSever = clientSocket.recv(4096)
while(len(returnFromSever)>0):
print(returnFromSever.decode())
returnFromSever = clientSocket.recv(4096)
clientSocket.close()
The error I am receiving is:
"No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it"
Admittedly, I know almost nothing about network related programming and on top of that I am not familiar with the Python syntax (my entire degree program was exclusively in Java) so I am very lost here and somewhat desperate.
If anyone could please point me in the right direction as far as how to correct this error, I would be very deeply grateful.
Thanks

The error you are getting (No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it) means that the port you are trying to connect to is not not being listened on the server.
For example, if you try to connect to 192.168.1.1:80 (IP = 192.168.1.1, port=80) and the server on 192.168.1.1 doesn't listen on port 80, you would receive this error.
A few things I would check in your case:
Is your server IP actually 192.168.1.4 ? If not, set it to the correct IP of the interface you want to listen on. If you want to listen on all the interfaces of the server, use this: serverHost = '0.0.0.0'
Does your client code attempt to connect to the server port? The server port is 56014. You need to pass it as the second parameter of your client program (because of this line serverPort = int(sys.argv[2])).

"Connection Refused" running a server externally , although working locally

Trying to get into sockets and networking.
I wrote some simple server and client scripts and ran them,
which was working when connected locally and client-server communicated just fine, yet when my client script tries to connect to my_external_ip:open_port it gets a "Connection Refused" [WinError 10061]
I've opened a port (5234 in this case) and checked it using those port-scanning sites, what the server seems to react to and even accept connections.
Yet when I run my client script, it throws an exception, and the server doesn't seem to respond or even be aware of the connection attempt.
I've shut down my firewall temporarily and made sure I'm listening on 0.0.0.0:5234 (which to my understanding should be what I'm doing).
Am I missing something? doesn't make sense to me that the script runs locally, the server takes incoming external connections, yet this doesn't work.
Maybe the problem is that the client's outbound connection attempt is somehow blocked?
I cleaned up some unrelated code, but that's about it:
SERVER:
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
server = "" #Also tried socket.gethostname() and 0.0.0.0
port = 5234
s.bind((server,port))
s.listen()
connection, address = s.accept()
CLIENT:
def __init__(self):
self.client = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
self.server = my_public_ip
self.port = 5234
self.client.connect((self.server,self.port)

Python socket listening on port 80 not receiving data

I have this program which is for now supposed to only listen on port 80 and receive data either from browser connections or from another python scripts.
this code:
import socket # Import socket module
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
host = socket.gethostname() # Get local machine name
port = 80 # Reserve a port for your service.
s.bind(("192.168.252.7", port)) # Bind to the port
s.listen(5) # Now wait for client connection.
while True:
c, addr = s.accept() # Establish connection with client.
print 'Got connection from', addr
print c.recv(1024)
c.close() # Close the connection
which is all copied from tutorialspoint. This code receives data, when the port is set to anything but 80 (eg 8080, 12345), but when it is 80, it only accepts the client but seems to not receive any data despite the data being successfully sent from somewhere else....
PLEASE HELP GUYS

Port 80 and all ports <1024 are privileged ports, your program must run as root in order to properly bind to these ports. I'm guessing you are running on Windows, since on any unix calling s.bind(("127.0.0.1", 80)) results in PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied exception immediately.
I'm not sure how Windows deals with priveleged ports, but quick google search points towards windows firewall messing with your program.
Proper web servers, such as Nginx or Apache, start as root, bind to the port 80 and immediately drop to a less privileged user, since running under root is dangerous.
P.S.: A couple of suggestions:
You can skip the socket.gethostname(). Use ip 127.0.0.1 if you want your program to be accessible only from your machine, or use ip 0.0.0.0 if you want to be accessible from any machine on your network.
You should try to switch to Python 3 ASAP, since Python 2 is basically dead at this point. Don't get used to two's syntax, you gonna relearn it in a couple of years tops.

Can't connect to local Machine IP through TCP From Arduino Uno using SIM900 Shield

So you have a basic understanding of the parts im using, I have:
Arduino Uno
Seeed Studio GPRS Shield v2.0 (http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/GPRS_Shield_V2.0)
Ultimate GPS for Adafruit V3.3 (https://www.adafruit.com/products/746?gclid=Cj0KEQjw3-W5BRCymr_7r7SFt8cBEiQAsLtM8qn4SCfVWIvAwW-x9Mu-FLeB6hLmVd0PAPVU8IAXXPgaAtaC8P8HAQ)
Here is my problem:
I have tested the Arduino stacked with the GPRS shield, and it works fine with regards to accessing the internet through TCP, sending SMS, etc.. However, my application requires me to send GPS data from the adafruit GPS to a web server that I have already coded with Django and postgresql. The backend is set up.
I need to send the data from the Uno (client) to my laptop (server), which I coded in python (This is just to check whether it is creating a connection):
#!/usr/bin/env python
import socket
# import postgres database functions
TCP_IP = '192.168.1.112'
TCP_PORT = 10000
BUFFER_SIZE = 40
server_address = (TCP_IP,TCP_PORT)
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
print 'Socket created.'
# Bind socket to TCP server and port
try:
s.bind(server_address)
except socket.error as msg:
print 'Bind failed. Error Code : ' + str(msg[0]) + ' Message ' + msg[1]
sys.exit()
print 'Socket Bind Complete.'
# Start Listening on socket
s.listen(1) # Puts socket into server mode
print 'Listening on port: ', TCP_PORT
# Now Keep Talking with the client
while (1):
# Wait to accept a connection
conn, addr = s.accept() # Wait for incoming connection with accept()
print 'Connection address:', addr
data = conn.recv(BUFFER_SIZE)
if not data: break
print "recieved data: data", data
conn.send(data) #echo
conn.close()
I dont think there is a problem with this. From this I will post data to my postgreSQL database. However, When I try to use AT commands on the SIM900 module to connect to the server using port 10000, I cannot connect:
AT+CIPSHUT
SHUT OK
AT+CGATT?
+CGATT: 1
OK
AT+CIPMUX=0
OK
AT+CSTT="fast.t-mobile.com","",""
OK
AT+CIICR
OK
AT+CIFSR
6.60.94.49
AT+CIPSTART="TCP","192.168.1.112,"10000"
OK
STATE: TCP CLOSED
CONNECT FAIL
I have tried connecting through TCP and replaced the AT+CIPSTART line with the below statement and it worked, so I know TCP works:
AT+CIPSTART="TCP","www.vishnusharma.com", "80"
Is the IP i'm using wrong? I'm new to this, but if it makes a difference, im using Ubuntu 16.04 partitioned on my Mac OSX. I have also checked the APN for T-mobile and it seems fine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

The IP you're using is inside a NAT since it starts with 192.168. Unless you have a private apn with the mobile operator you're using, you won't be able to reach your Ubuntu from a public IP. Your ISP gives you a public IP address which ir administrated by your router, so if you want this to work, you'll have to do a port forwarding from your router to your Ubuntu.
To do the port forwarding you have to get in the router's configuration page (Typically 192.168.1.1 but depends on the model) an there you'll have to redirect the port XXX to 192.168.1.112:10000. After that you have to obtain your public IP (curl ifconfig.co) and use it to access from the SIM900.

First of all as a suggestion, you can combine the two shields by using SIM908 (unless you are getting more precision on your GPS shield). Since your TCP connection is working, I bet that the port 10000 on your ubuntu is blocked by the firewall. You can first try to turn off your firewall and see if it works. If it did not worked its something else. If it worked, turn on your firewall and then unblock the tcp port using the following command:
sudo ufw allow 10000/tcp

connection refused from server unit I reset client machine

Below is the code I am running within a service. For the most part the script runs fine for days/weeks until the script hiccups and crashes. I am not so worried about the crashing part as I can resolve the cause from the error logs an patch appropriately. The issue I am facing is that sometimes when the service restarts and tries to connect to the server again, it gets a (10061, 'Connection refused') error, so that the service is unable to start up again. The bizarre part is that there is no python processes running when connections are being refused. IE no process with image name "pythonw.exe" or "pythonservice.exe." It should be noted that I am unable to connect to the server with any other machine as well until I reset computer which runs the client script. The client machine is running python 2.7 on a windows server 2003 OS. It should also be noted that the server is coded on a piece of hardware of which I do not have access to the code.
try:
EthernetConfig = ConfigParser()
EthernetConfig.read('Ethernet.conf')
HOST = EthernetConfig.get("TCP_SERVER", "HOST").strip()
PORT = EthernetConfig.getint("TCP_SERVER", "PORT")
lp = LineParser()
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((HOST, PORT))
reader = s.makefile("rb")
while(self.run == True):
line = reader.readline()
if line:
line = line.strip()
lp.parse(line)
except:
servicemanager.LogErrorMsg(traceback.format_exc()) # if error print it to event log
s.shutdown(2)
s.close()
os._exit(-1)

Connection refused is an error meaning that the program on the other side of the connection is not accepting your connection attempt. Most probably it hasn't noticed you crashing, and hasn't closed its connection.
What you can do is simply sleep a little while (30-60 seconds) and try again, and do this in a loop and hope the other end notices that the connection in broken so it can accept new connections again.

Turns out that Network Admin had the port closed that I was trying to connect to. It is open for one IP which belongs to the server. Problem is that the server has two network cards with two separate IP's. Issue is now resolved.