TortoiseSVN can't connect to machine in workgroup

Question

I've created a SubVersion server on one of the machines in my workgroup. From my development box I'm able to access the repository and check in/out files without any problem.

I've just installed TortoiseSVN and no matter what I do it won't connect to the repository on the server. I get the infamous error "No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it".

Does anyone have any ideas why this might be..? As far as I know, the tortoise shell extension is running under my user credentials. It seems strange that the SVN command line tools work correctly, but not Tortoise.

Both machines are running Vista

NOTE: In both cases I'm using the svn protocol to connect

Finally, I've fixed it...! The problem seems to be with the Subversion package I downloaded. I downloaded the latest version of SlikSVN (1.5.5) and installed it on my client and server. It seems TortoiseSVN doesn't like this build/version. I just uninstalled SlickSVN on both machines and grabbed the latest version from CollabNet and now everything works as expected!

Answer 1

What protocol are you using to access the server-side repository? If it's not a file:// protocol, have you confirmed that the corresponding server is actually running? Try to connect to it manually, for example by running

telnet target.machine.ip.address target_port

(of course, replacing target.machine.ip.address by the actual IP address and target_port by the numeric server port). If that port is open, the screen will clear, otherwise telnet will hang for a while then complain.

If it works using the IP address and not the machine's name, you have a problem in name resolution (check your DNS and/or WINS settings.)

Answer 2

Please check the following:

• is your firewall configured to let traffic through (port 3690, by default, or any other port you might have svnserve configured to run on). Check firewalls both on your client machine and on the machine you run svnserve.
• many virus scanners also interfere with 'unusual' network ports
• the default host svnserve is listening on is 'localhost', which means you won't be able to connect to it from another machine. Did you start svnserve with the '--listen-host serverhostname' param?

Edit: if you're using the collab.net server, you have to start the service manually:

net start svnserve

Also this might help: http://subversion.open.collab.net/articles/svnserve-service.htm

Answer 3

Might be worth checking that Tortoise hasn't picked up on a proxy setting (Network settings in Tortoise config). From the same screen you can open the SVN server file and see if there's anything wierd going on in there.

Answer 4

You might want to ask this question on the TSVN mailing list:

See http://tortoisesvn.net/community or http://groups.google.com/group/tortoisesvn

You will usually get an answer very quickly.

Answer 5

Finally, I've fixed it...!

The problem seems to be with the Subversion package I downloaded. I downloaded the latest version of SlikSVN (1.5.5) and installed it on my client and server. It seems TortoiseSVN doesn't like this build/version. I just uninstalled SlickSVN on both machines and grabbed the latest version from CollabNet and now everything works as expected!

Answer 6

I had the same problem with SlickSVN 1.5.5. But in my case it was local subversion server running in deamon mode. CollabNet package works fine with the same configuration.

Answer 7

The Slik Subversion Client is IPv6 and IPv4 enabled, so if your system says it prefers IPv6. With the --listen-host argument you can choose how it should listen.