I see that there has been some configuration updates which is why I am sure I am getting a connection refused.
i tried searching for an updated bitcoin.conf example but couldn't find anything.
this is the config throwing the error:
rpcuser=user rpcpassword=pass rpcport=10301 rpcthreads=64 rpcallowip=127.0.0.1 rpcallowip=10.0.0.3 rpcallowip=10.0.0.2 rpcallowip=10.0.0.4 rpcallowip=10.0.0.7 rpcallowip=10.0.0.8 rpcallowip=10.0.0.9 rpcallowip=10.0.0.10 rpcallowip=10.0.0.11 maxconnections=25 daemon=1 gen=0
alertnotify=echo %s | mail -s "Bitcoin alert!" support@xxxx.xxx blocknotify=blocknotify.sh PORT 6 %s