Error message: “Connection refused (WHOIS: whois.iana.org)”

Hi!

The plugin is unable to connect to the IANA web service to obtain details about the IP address you clicked. There are a lot of possible causes. For instance, your hosting provider blocked outgoing connections from your website or IANA server rejects all requests from your hosting provider. Does it happen all the time or started some day? What’s IP address?

Hi Gioni! Thanks for your reply. The site was just pushed live a few months ago, so the plugin could have had this going on from the beginning (without my knowledge), as I’ve only recently had occasion to utilize the feature with blocked IP addresses. The same error appears to occur for any IP address clicked on in the Activity list. Do you want the IP address of the website in question, or IP addresses in the Activity list? (Apologies if this is a silly question.)

Hi, pamelochka!

1. An IP address from the Activity list that generates the error.
2. Please ask your hosting provider about that issue. Something like “Why is the fsockopen() function not working on my website?”.

Hi Gioni!

Thanks for your reply. See my responses below:

1. There are a bunch of them, but here’s the latest one: 200.54.59.194 (Looks like all the IPs being blocked out are trying to access wp-login.php, which I deactivated via your plugin since the site was first pushed live a few months ago.)
2. I will ask and report back if they are able to help resolve this.

Also, incidentally, in addition to the error about fsockopen(), the button “Add network to the Black List” is grayed out/unavailable (for all these same IP in the Activity list). Only the button “Add IP to the Black List” is available.

Related question: What are the circumstances under which it would be advisable to add a network to the Black List vs. adding the IP?

Thank you again for your help! I appreciate it very much.

1. I’ve checked the IP address. It’s just ordinary IP. To get WHOIS information about it the plugin sends an outgoing request to the whois.iana.org server port 43. Perhaps, you hosting provider is blocking all the requests this kind.
2. The network button is disabled because the plugin is unable to retrieve WHOIS information and extract information about a network IP address belongs to.
3. Adding a network is up to you. For instance, you see a lot of aggressive attempts from a particular network and you know that there are no legitimate users in this network. Especially if you see a country (the plugin extract it from WHOIS data) the network belongs to.