Node.js Error: connect ECONNREFUSED

Chances are you are struggling with the node.js dying whenever the server you are calling refuses to connect. Try this:

process.on('uncaughtException', function (err) {
    console.log(err);
}); 

This keeps your server running and also give you a place to attach the debugger and look for a deeper problem.

I was having the same issue with ghost and heroku.

heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production 

solved it!

Check your config and env that the server is running on.

You're trying to connect to localhost:8080 ... is any service running on your localhost and on this port? If not, the connection is refused which cause this error. I would suggest to check if there is anything running on localhost:8080 first.

You need to have a server running on port 8080 when you run the code above that simply returns the request back through the response. Copy the code below to a separate file (say 'server.js') and start this server using the node command (node server.js). You can then separately run your code above (node app.js) from a separate command line.

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function(request, response){

    //The following code will print out the incoming request text
    request.pipe(response);

}).listen(8080, '127.0.0.1');

console.log('Listening on port 8080...');