Winsock error 10053

Winsock error 10053 used to be usually related to network problems, not software, but now it is also commonly caused by anti-virus software.

10053 is a winsock error with the description "Software caused connection abort."

The error happens when the local network system aborts a connection, which might happen if the remote host didn't acknowledge data even after retries.

If you get this error, first see if you have virus scanning software that may be blocking outgoing tcp/ip packets. If you do, make sure that your application is set as a "trusted" application or turn your scanner off.

If AV software is not the problem, here are a few things to try:

  • Ping something on your local network. Do you get a response?
  • Ping the remote host. Does it respond? If not, problem solved. You can try a traceroute to see if the problem is at the target remote host or somewhere in between.
  • Is there a firewall between your application and the remote host? If so, and the connection has been open for a long period of time with no data transfer, its possible that the firewall has timed out the connection and closed the sockets.

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