Error reference Browser & network

How to fix ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

ERR_CONNECTION_RESET is different from a refusal: the TCP connection opened successfully, then someone slammed it shut with a reset packet mid-conversation. The sender can be the server, a firewall, a corporate or national filter, or a proxy enforcing its auth policy. This guide shows how to identify which party is resetting you — and the fix for each.

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ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

What ERR_CONNECTION_RESET means

A reset (RST) arrived after the connection was established. Something in the path decided the conversation should end immediately: the server process crashed or hit a connection limit, a middlebox inspected the traffic and injected a reset, security software intercepted the TLS session and mishandled it, or an auth layer accepted the TCP connection and then rejected you.

Timing is the best diagnostic. A reset during the TLS handshake on specific hostnames points at hostname-based filtering by a network middlebox. A reset immediately after connecting to a proxy points at the proxy's auth policy. A reset that appears only after many successful requests points at rate limiting or an IP block on the target side.

Keep it distinct from its neighbors: refused means the connection was rejected before it existed, and a timeout means silence. Reset means you got in and were thrown out — which is why the causes are middleboxes, policies, and crashes rather than wrong addresses.

ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

Fix ERR_CONNECTION_RESET step by step

The goal of each step is to locate the reset sender — your network, your security software, the proxy, or the target.

Retry from a different network, such as a phone hotspot. If the resets vanish, a middlebox on your usual network is filtering traffic.
Note which sites reset. Resets during the TLS handshake on specific hostnames — while everything else works — are the signature of hostname-based filtering.
Temporarily disable antivirus and TLS-inspection software. HTTPS-scanning tools are a notorious source of injected resets.
If your proxy uses IP whitelist authentication, confirm your current public IP is still whitelisted. Home and office IPs rotate, and a mismatch shows up as an instant reset right after connecting.
Check for MTU problems on VPN or PPPoE links: ping -M do -s 1472 example.com. If large packets fail, lower the MTU or clamp MSS.
Look for a volume pattern. Resets that start only after many requests from one IP point to rate limiting — slow down or rotate exit IPs.
If you control the server, check its logs for crashes, restarts, or a connection-limit ceiling that coincides with the resets.
Run curl -v against the failing URL and note exactly where the reset lands — before TLS, during the handshake, or mid-transfer. Each stage points to a different culprit.

ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

Resets in proxy and scraping setups

Proxy workflows add two reset sources on top of the generic causes: the proxy's own authentication policy, and the target's anti-abuse tooling. The timing separates them — a reset immediately after connecting points at the proxy's auth layer, while resets that appear after a stretch of successful traffic point at the target.

On ProxyOmega, authentication is a username and password (your dashboard API key) or an IP whitelist. Whitelist auth is convenient until your source IP changes — a rotated home IP or a new office network means the proxy drops your connections on arrival. Password auth follows you across networks; whitelist auth needs updating whenever you move.

Whitelist drift

The classic sequence: everything worked yesterday, your ISP rotated your home IP overnight, and today every connection resets instantly.

Add the new IP in the dashboard, or switch to username-and-password authentication so your access is independent of where you connect from.

Targets that reset busy IPs

Some sites reset connections from an IP after a volume threshold instead of serving an error page. Spreading traffic fixes it.

Budget Unlimited (/plan-unlimited/) rotates each port's exit on an interval across a 1.5M+ residential pool, sticky -session-<id> values hold one IP for up to 24 hours when a flow needs continuity, and -ttl-<seconds> sets your own rotation clock. More scraping-focused guidance lives at /use-web-scraping/.

Middleboxes near you

Corporate DPI, TLS-inspecting antivirus, and national filters all inject resets — and they sit between you and everything, including your proxy.

If resets persist across different targets and exit IPs, the problem is local: test from another network, and move production workloads to a host with a clean network path, such as a VPS.

ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

A reset-resistant request pattern

Treat resets as retryable, and make each retry leave from a new exit IP. With session-based rotation that is one line: generate a fresh -session- value per attempt so each retry uses a different exit instead of hammering the address that just got reset.

import requests, uuid

def fetch(url, attempts=3):
    for _ in range(attempts):
        session_id = uuid.uuid4().hex[:8]          # fresh exit IP per attempt
        user = f"USERNAME-country-us-session-{session_id}"
        proxy = f"http://{user}:[email protected]:10000"
        try:
            r = requests.get(url,
                             proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy},
                             timeout=(5, 30))
            if r.ok:
                return r
        except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError:
            continue                               # reset: retry on a new IP
    raise RuntimeError("all attempts were reset")

print(fetch("https://api.ipify.org").text)

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between ERR_CONNECTION_RESET and ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED?

Refused means the connection was rejected up front — nothing was listening, so no session ever existed. Reset means the connection opened and was then torn down by a RST packet mid-conversation. Refusals point at addresses, ports, and dead services; resets point at filtering middleboxes, crashing servers, rate limits, and auth policies that cut you off after connecting.

Why does my proxy reset connections right after I connect?

The most likely cause is IP whitelist authentication: if your account authenticates by whitelist and your current public IP isn't on the list, the connection is dropped immediately after it opens. Home and office IPs change without warning. Add your new IP in the dashboard, or switch to username-and-password auth, which works from any network.

Can websites reset connections to block scrapers?

Yes. Some anti-abuse systems reset connections from IPs that exceed a request threshold rather than serving a 403 or a challenge page. The signature is a working scraper that starts failing after some volume from one IP. Slow your request rate, spread traffic across sessions, and rotate exit IPs so no single address accumulates enough history to trip the threshold.

Does ERR_CONNECTION_RESET mean my ISP is blocking the site?

It can. Corporate, campus, and national filters often enforce blocklists by injecting reset packets when a banned hostname appears in the TLS handshake. Test the same site from a phone hotspot — if the resets disappear, your network is filtering. A proxy helps when blocking keys on IP or DNS, though filters that inspect hostnames can still fire on the tunnel request.

Rotate past resets. Start routing today.

Per-port interval rotation across a 1.5M+ residential pool — with sticky sessions up to 24h when you need one IP to hold.

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