First check to ensure that the screen-scraper server is running. Details on doing that can be found here.

This may also be occurring because the IP address of the machine that is connecting to screen-scraper isn't listed in screen-scraper's list of allowed hosts. You can correct this in one of two ways:

• If the machine running screen-scraper can launch the workbench (e.g., it's running Windows or Linux with Xwindows), you can adjust the security settings by opening the "Settings" window (click the wrench icon), clicking on the "Servers" icon, then entering the IP address (or a portion of the IP address) of the machine you want to allow to connect to screen-scraper in the box labeled "Hosts to allow to connect".
• If the computer running screen-scraper can't launch the workbench (e.g., it's running Linux without Xwindows installled), you can adjust the security settings by altering the "resource/conf/screen-scraper.properties" file. Add the IP address (or a portion of the IP address) of the machine you want to allow to connect to the "IPAddressesToAllow" property (it's comma-delimited).

After making either of the changes mentioned above, you'll need to restart screen-scraper.

If that still doesn't help, check to ensure that you're trying to connect to screen-scraper using the port on which screen-scraper is listening. The default for the screen-scraper server is 8777, and the default for the SOAP server is 8779. These port numbers can both be altered via the "Settings" dialog box in the workbench (click the wrench icon), under the "Servers" section.