Hello
Johnnycentral1,
When you experience this error, are you also experiencing the error: Internal Exception: io.netty.handler.timeout.ReadTimeoutException? This may occur before or after you've had the error described above, which is: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: no further information: /<IP ADDRESS>
If you've received these errors around roughly the same time, then the solution rests in a Minecraft-related bug. This error is thrown by corrupted server data which is believed to be formed by a bug in the way Minecraft servers save and backup data. Since I've already addressed this exact issue in a similar post in more detail (and because I feel it would be creating a duplicate post), I'm going to link you to the thread with my response:
http://www.minecraftsurvivalgames.com/threads/internal-exception.72810/#post-836211
This is the only recent error that I can think of that would be causing your connection to be refused. If you don't remember whether these errors were around the same time, or the other error I posted looks familiar, then this is likely what is affecting you. It's not an error with your computer, your Internet or our servers; it's a bug in Minecraft itself and has been affecting multiple networks (though some more frequently than others).
Hopefully you've been able to connect since you've posted this thread! I hope to see around! Happy holidays! :]