Spire error server actively refused the connection

9th January 2026

Seen this error a few times since v3.18 mostly on new installs
the server actively refused the connection

Work around:
add the server in the format
word-word-####.spirelan.com:10880

for some reason adding the tcp port on the end works better
if it’s already in your server list with the port #, delete it out and add it again.
please stop telling me “we never used to need this” and “what changed”

Unrelated error:

If you use the server IP address or a different DNS name to reach the server you will get the error
SSL certificate verification failed.
Your connection to this server may not be secure.
= Ignore

but this is due to the certificate being bound to the spirelan.com dns name.