xml rpc server refuses connection

"""I'm following along in Python for Unix and Linux system administrators.
in an ipython shell I use the following code"""

import xmlrpclib
x = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://localhost:8765')
x.ls('.')

""" This gives me the following error message, but what exactly is going on here?
:

/usr/lib/python2.6/httplib.pyc in send(self, str)
    737         if self.sock is None:
    738             if self.auto_open:
--> 739                 self.connect()
    740             else:
    741                 raise NotConnected()

/usr/lib/python2.6/httplib.pyc in connect(self)
    718         """Connect to the host and port specified in __init__."""
    719         self.sock = socket.create_connection((self.host,self.port),
--> 720                                              self.timeout)
    721
    722         if self._tunnel_host:

/usr/lib/python2.6/socket.pyc in create_connection(address, timeout)
    557         except error, msg:
    558             if sock is not None:
    559                 sock.close()
    560
--> 561     raise error, msg

error: [Errno 111] Connection refused
"""