# A network error occurred - please help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Syncing & AnkiWeb\ **Created:** [October 16, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386 "2020-10-16T12:00:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StressedOut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StressedOut](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/StressedOut)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/1 "2020-10-16T12:00:34Z")
I downloaded Anki for 64 bit windows (2.1.35-standard) as that is the version I require. Upon attempting to sync I received an error stating that ‘A network error occurred. Error details: error sending request for url (): error trying to connect:tcp connect error: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (os error 10061)’ I did upload a screenshot here but it has been added a text?? Can anyone offer any advice please? I installed Anki desktop for a teacher, so it’s obviously a school. Sophos website filtering is used in school but the anki website is not blocked by the schools web filtering. If anyone knows what causes this error or can suggest any web addresses that can be added to the schools web filter, that would be very helpful. Thanks in advance! ![Sync error](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/8/8c6c042e5a65412b901cf2011b59afa58a1465cd.png) ---
**Author:** ![dae](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/dae/32/65_2.png) [@dae](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/dae)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/2 "2020-10-18T22:23:22Z")
That error message is typically caused by antivirus or firewalls, so I’d suggest double-checking any filtering/proxying that is on the machine/network. ---
**Author:** ![Shannbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shannbo](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Shannbo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 6:32am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/3 "2020-10-19T06:32:40Z")
I got the same problem as yours and still not figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![StressedOut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StressedOut](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/StressedOut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 10:20am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/4 "2020-10-19T10:20:10Z")
Thanks dae, we do have web filtering, antivirus and a firewall. Do you know if there is a ‘whitelist’ of sites that we can add to our web filtering please? The anki domian has been whitelisted in our web filtering, but it could be that the sync’ing uses a different domain?? ---
**Author:** ![StressedOut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StressedOut](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/StressedOut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 10:21am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/5 "2020-10-19T10:21:02Z")
It’s frustrating, isn’t it! ---
**Author:** ![Shannbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shannbo](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Shannbo)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/6 "2020-10-20T09:17:10Z")
![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/4/4282ab17e916612fc82a56ab0092db01d86f61fd.png) I`ve got it done by just turning my PC`s proxy server off. Why don`t you give it a try? ---
**Author:** ![StressedOut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StressedOut](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/StressedOut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 9:49am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/7 "2020-10-20T09:49:03Z")
I work in a large school with a firewall and a proxy server, which I cannot turn off unfortunately. I will need to found out exactly what web addresses, ports or firewall rules etc Anki uses. ---
**Author:** ![dae](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/dae/32/65_2.png) [@dae](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/dae)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 11:12am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/8 "2020-10-20T11:12:16Z")
Try searching for ‘firewall’ in the manual. ---
**Author:** ![StressedOut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StressedOut](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/StressedOut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/9 "2020-10-20T12:15:18Z")
Ok, thanks I will try that. ---
**Author:** ![Hossein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/hossein/32/4043_2.png) [@Hossein](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Hossein)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/10 "2021-03-27T08:07:00Z")
this may solve the issue: open **internet options** window (one way is searching it in start) then go to the connection tab and click on LAN setting and match your setting with the image below ![1](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/c/c219328c7af7078259bf420263a544290fe03fef.png) ![2](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/f/f832097d6781650923114c363bff54feacfddc09.png) ![3](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/9/9c0f3cbcafc80b514878364ac7706d0d5c36cbb4.png) ---
**Author:** ![dizzycozy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/dizzycozy/32/4360_2.png) [@dizzycozy](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/dizzycozy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 5:56am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/11 "2021-04-26T05:56:26Z")
thank you so much! your solution solves my problem well. ---
**Author:** ![mattjbr2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/mattjbr2/32/1258_2.png) [@mattjbr2](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/mattjbr2)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/12 "2021-07-27T09:36:26Z")
I had this same problem. I solved it by doing the following: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/7/7b63cd4d77cc77073cb6e1fa890919be6d0114b5.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/0/078d7da186f4ce306b255dc79b32b5d4c8d12006.png) Gave full permission to everything on that list ---
**Author:** ![dae](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/dae/32/65_2.png) [@dae](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/dae)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/13 "2021-07-28T01:41:58Z")
I’m a bit puzzled as to why that helps in this case, but thanks for taking the time to post your solution. ---
**Author:** ![mattjbr2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/mattjbr2/32/1258_2.png) [@mattjbr2](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/mattjbr2)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2021, 10:14am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/14 "2021-07-29T10:14:47Z")
Ignore my previous post. This wasn’t due to those permissions I posted. Anki works perfectly right up until the point where I start a Freedom ([www.freedom.to](https://freedom.to)) session. The issue was resolved after I restarted my PC. I discovered that I got the following error: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/7/78e90ac9976eb552d95f8c727f3a33bb8dc475d1.png) The error only appears when I have a Freedom session running. If I end the Freedom session via Task Manager, I then get the following error from Anki: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/c/c13958534d5605ca75ee5592bfc05c78b70d5da7.png) Which doesn’t go away until I restart my PC. The problem then begins again once I start a new Freedom session. I emailed Freedom support team to ask for a solution. This issue doesn’t occur on AnkiDroid, even though the exact same Freedom session is running on my phone. Disabling firewalls and antiviruses does nothing. **EDIT:** I found this “Non-proxy mode” in the Freedom settings and enabled it to see what happens: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/c/c7aaca1befe97a96968ac7b49419fca7f195a99d.png) So it appears as though my problem has been resolved. I’m now able to use Anki during a Freedom session. So I suggest other Freedom users to enable this option in their Freedom settings if they want to use Anki. It’s just weird how this Freedom “proxy” remains even if I force-close Freedom from Task Manager and how it doesn’t go away until I restart my PC. > **[Non-Proxy Mode for Windows](https://support.freedom.to/en/articles/4523542-non-proxy-mode-for-windows)** > > Some problems with Freedom can be solved by using non-proxy mode. Here's how to set it up. ---
**Author:** ![luuvu2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@luuvu2000](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/luuvu2000)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/15 "2022-12-21T00:32:16Z")
Thank you very much. Your solution solved my same problem very well. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 6:11am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/a-network-error-occurred-please-help/4386/16 "2023-05-01T06:11:07Z")