ruby - "gem install rails" fails with DNS error

Question

$ rvm use
Using /home/owner/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2
$ gem install rails
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError)
    Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network" port 80 (http://your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network/quick/Marshal.4.8/thread_safe-0.3.4.gemspec.rz)
$ gem update --system
...
$ gem -v
2.4.1
$ gem install rails
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError)
    Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network" port 80 (http://your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network/quick/Marshal.4.8/rails-4.1.5.gemspec.rz)

I have attempted:

1. Installing other gems (devise, activerecord). I get the same error.
2. Reinstalling RVM
3. Running gem update --system
4. Setting static DNS to google's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
5. Adding https://production.cf.rubygems.org as a gem source (see below for error)
6. Installing 14.04 over my previous 12.04. Error persists. The source of the error must be outside my computer.

Additional information about my connection:

1. I can connect to https://rubygems.org/ through my browser
2. My modem's firewall is completely disabled.
3. $ curl -v --head https://rubygems.org output: http://pastebin.com/ca6DAvaU

My /etc/resolv.conf

$ cat /etc/resolv.co
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
#     DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 75.75.75.75
search home.network

Add direct gem source

Ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19299266/3993020

owner@owner-Z87X-UD3H:~$ gem sources --add https://production.cf.rubygems.org
Error fetching https://production.cf.rubygems.org:
    Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network" port 443 (https://your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network/specs.4.8.gz)

Additional debug information for gem install rails

owner@owner-Z87X-UD3H:~$ gem install rails --debug -V
NOTE:  Debugging mode prints all exceptions even when rescued
Exception `LoadError' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/resolv.rb:169 - LoadError
HEAD https://api.rubygems.org/api/v1/dependencies
Exception `OpenSSL::SSL::SSLErrorWaitReadable' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/openssl/buffering.rb:182 - read would block
200 OK
GET https://api.rubygems.org/api/v1/dependencies?gems=rails
Exception `OpenSSL::SSL::SSLErrorWaitReadable' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/openssl/buffering.rb:182 - read would block
Exception `OpenSSL::SSL::SSLErrorWaitReadable' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/openssl/buffering.rb:182 - read would block
Exception `OpenSSL::SSL::SSLErrorWaitReadable' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/openssl/buffering.rb:182 - read would block
Exception `OpenSSL::SSL::SSLErrorWaitReadable' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/openssl/buffering.rb:182 - read would block
Exception `OpenSSL::SSL::SSLErrorWaitReadable' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/openssl/buffering.rb:182 - read would block
200 OK
Exception `Resolv::DNS::Config::NXDomain' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/resolv.rb:547 - _rubygems._tcp.api.rubygems.org
Exception `Errno::ECONNREFUSED' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/net/http.rb:879 - Connection refused - connect(2) for "your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network" port 443
Exception `Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError' at /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/remote_fetcher.rb:286 - Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network" port 443 (https://your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network/quick/Marshal.4.8/rails-4.1.5.gemspec.rz)
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError)
    Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network" port 443 (https://your-dns-needs-immediate-attention.network/quick/Marshal.4.8/rails-4.1.5.gemspec.rz)
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/remote_fetcher.rb:286:in `rescue in fetch_path'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/remote_fetcher.rb:259:in `fetch_path'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/source.rb:146:in `fetch_spec'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/resolver/api_specification.rb:76:in `spec'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/resolver/installer_set.rb:77:in `add_always_install'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/dependency_installer.rb:461:in `resolve_dependencies'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:238:in `install_gem'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:299:in `block in install_gems'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:295:in `each'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:295:in `install_gems'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:202:in `execute'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/command.rb:307:in `invoke_with_build_args'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/command_manager.rb:168:in `process_args'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/command_manager.rb:138:in `run'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/gem_runner.rb:54:in `run'
    /home/owner/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/bin/gem:21:in `<main>'

Answer 1

Like blasio pointed out. It seems like the Xfinity modems are setting up the search domain to home.network and this is messing things up for the reasons he mentioned (essentially, home.network is now a valid domain name that the modems are trying to contact before making a connection).

I had the same problem and the modification on resolv.conf seem to do the trick, and that should probably be an accepted solution for linux environments. I had this problem while attempting this on a virtual machine running ubuntu, and my host(OSX Mavericks) was passing down the search home.network like the modem is, so I wanted to see if I could find a solution that could be done at the host OS level because the same problem happened when I attempted gem install rails on my OSX terminal.

If you go to the OSX network settings, under DNS you'll see the home.network line under the Search Domains area. After some googling it seems that comcast recently changed this from http://hds1.ma.comcast.net'. I changed it back, restarted and gave gem install rails another shot, which worked with no problem.

Strange issue but this is a better solution that swapping modems or changing gem sources.