What causes HttpHostConnectException?

Question

I have a Auto Complete/type ahead feature on Search for my website. I see that some time their is an exception associated with it. We are using a proxy server.

org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connection to http://proxy.xyz.com:60 refused    

at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultClientConnectionOperator.openConnection(DefaultClientConnectionOperator.java:159)
at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPoolEntry.open(AbstractPoolEntry.java:149)
at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPooledConnAdapter.open(AbstractPooledConnAdapter.java:108)
at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.execute(DefaultRequestDirector.java:415)
at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:641)
at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:576)
at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:554)
at com.xxx.dd.sone.integration.SearchDAO.getJSONData(SearchDAO.java:60)
at com.xxx.dd.sone.integration.SearchDAO.searchAutoCompleteResults(SearchDAO.java:560)
at com.xxx.dd.sone.presentation.util.SearchAutoCompleteUtil.doGet(SearchAutoCompleteUtil.java:26)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:731)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:845)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:242)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:352)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:236)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3254)
at weblogic.servlet.provider.WlsSubjectHandle.run(WlsSubjectHandle.java:57)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.doSecuredExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2163)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2074)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1512)
at weblogic.servlet.provider.ContainerSupportProviderImpl$WlsRequestExecutor.run(ContainerSupportProviderImpl.java:255)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteRequestAdapter.execute(ExecuteRequestAdapter.java:22)
at weblogic.kernel.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:147)
at weblogic.kernel.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:119)

Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused

Here is the how i have coded

public HashMap<String, Object> getJSONData(String url)throws Exception {
    DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpParams params = httpClient.getParams();
    try {
        HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, 10000);
        HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, 10000);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        throw e;
    }
    HttpHost proxy = new HttpHost(proxy.xyz.com, 60);
    ConnRouteParams.setDefaultProxy(params, proxy);
    URI uri;
    InputStream data = null;
        uri = new URI(url);
        HttpGet method = new HttpGet(uri);
        HttpResponse response=null;
        try {
        response = httpClient.execute(method);
        }catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            throw e;
        }
        data = response.getEntity().getContent();
    Reader r = new InputStreamReader(data);
    HashMap<String, Object> jsonObj = (HashMap<String, Object>) GenericJSONUtil.fromJson(r);
    return jsonObj;
}

Can any one tell me why i am getting this exception some time only? is this possible that this exception is caused when a search request is made from Android applications as our website don't support a request is being made from android applications

Answer 1

A "connection refused" error happens when you attempt to open a TCP connection to an IP address / port where there is nothing currently listening for connections. If nothing is listening, the OS on the server side "refuses" the connection.

If this is happening intermittently, then the most likely explanations are (IMO):

• the server you are talking ("proxy.xyz.com" / port 60) to is going up and down, OR
• there is something¹ between your client and the proxy that is intermittently sending requests to a non-functioning host, or something.

Is this possible that this exception is caused when a search request is made from Android applications as our website don't support a request is being made from android applications.

It seems unlikely. You said that the "connection refused" exception message says that it is the proxy that is refusing the connection, not your server. Besides if a server was going to not handle certain kinds of request, it still has to accept the TCP connection to find out what the request is ... before it can reject it.

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^{1 - For example, it could be a DNS that round-robin resolves the DNS name to different IP addresses. Or it could be an IP-based load balancer.}