"connect: connection refused" while attempting to connect to localhost - go

Question

I'm currently attempting to create a TCP service that will just log/store whatever is sent to it. I can't seem to understand why I cannot connect to my localhost using DialTCP. I keep getting
dial tcp 127.0.0.1:8080: connect: connection refused
func main() {
errCh := make(chan error)
tcpAddr, _ := net.ResolveTCPAddr("tcp", "localhost:8080")
for {
conn, err := net.DialTCP("tcp", nil, tcpAddr)
if err != nil {
log.Println("Could not connect -> ", err.Error())
} else {
recordMessage(conn, errCh)
err = <-errCh
log.Println("Error", err)
conn.Close()
}
log.Println("trying again in 10 seconds..")
time.Sleep(30 * time.Second)
}
}
I looked over my Firewall settings and noting seems to be blocking it. I'm still not sure if its due to something related to my Firewall or if I'm just missing something super obvious.

Answer 1

Start by running this Go program in a terminal -- it listens to port 2000 but you could change it to 8080 or whatever you wish:
func main() {
// Listen on TCP port 2000 on all interfaces.
l, err := net.Listen("tcp", ":2000")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer l.Close()
for {
// Wait for a connection.
conn, err := l.Accept()
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
// Handle the connection in a new goroutine.
// The loop then returns to accepting, so that
// multiple connections may be served concurrently.
go func(c net.Conn) {
log.Println(c)
// Echo all incoming data.
io.Copy(c, c)
// Shut down the connection.
c.Close()
}(conn)
}
}
Then in a separate terminal run this simple client:
func main() {
var addr string
if len(os.Args) > 1 {
addr = os.Args[1]
} else {
addr = "localhost:2000"
}
conn, err := net.Dial("tcp", addr)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
// handle error
}
fmt.Fprintf(conn, "foobar")
conn.Close()
}
Asking it to connect to the same port. The connection should succeed and you should see the server logging something.
Now try to connect with your client.
Without writing Go, you could to these things with the nc command-line tool (netcat). nc -lv PORT creates a simple listening server on PORT, for example.