Pidgin getting "Connection Refused" whenever I connect to IRC server

Pidgin getting "Connection Refused" whenever I connect to IRC server On my win 7 x64 machine using pidgin 2.6.3 I cannot connect to any IRC server. I have tried most of the North American servers, as well as my workplace's internal server with no luck. I have tried from work as well as from home but different networks have no effect. I keep getting Unable to Connect: Connection refused.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 277

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Guest [Entry]

"Maybe it's caused by your firewall?

Win+R, run telnet from there, and enter:

open chat.freenode.net 6667

If it greets you with something like this...

NOTICE AUTH :*** Looking up your hostname...
NOTICE AUTH :*** Checking ident

...then either your firewall is blocking pidgin.exe, or your configuration is incorrect somehow.

If Windows 7 doesn't have telnet anymore (which I heard but cannot confirm), the same thing can be tested with a different IRC client (Xchat, mIRC).

Also try connecting to a different port instead of the usual 6667. (chat.freenode.net allows 8001 among others.)"