UBUNTU 8.0.4 - Connection refused - BOINC/SETI@home task suspended

I have searched this forum, but haven't found a similar problem + solution.

BOINC/SETI@home on
HP Pavillion dv6570eo
2 GB mem
284 GB HD, 277 GB free
UBUNTU 8.0.4

cd "/home/john/sw/BOINC" && exec ./boincmgr $@ &
[1] 7288 (i.e. pid)
connect: Connection refused
connect: Operation now in progress

I can ping these 2 sites successfully:
setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu & boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu
i.e. hole through.

Messages:
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Starting BOINC client version 5.10.45 for i686-pc-linux-gnu
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Libraries: libcurl/7.18.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8g zlib/1.2.3.3 c-ares/1.5.1
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Data directory: /home/john/sw/BOINC
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 10]
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm ida
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||OS: Linux: 2.6.24-18-generic
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Memory: 1.98 GB physical, 5.79 GB virtual
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Disk: 142.13 GB total, 131.79 GB free
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Local time is UTC +2 hours
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST|SETI@home|URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID: 4426464; location: (none); project prefs: default
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 07-Jun-2008 22:55:40)
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Host location: none
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||General prefs: using your defaults
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Reading preferences override file
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Preferences limit memory usage when active to 668.55MB
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 2005.65MB
2008-06-08T17:45:33 CEST||Preferences limit disk usage to 46.57GB
____________
Split personality - who, us?

cd "/home/john/sw/BOINC" && exec ./boincmgr $@ &
[1] 7288 (i.e. pid)
connect: Connection refused
connect: Operation now in progress

cd "/home/john/sw/BOINC" && exec ./boincmgr $@ &
[1] 7288 (i.e. pid)
connect: Connection refused
connect: Operation now in progress

Problem solved: Inserted alias for localhost in /etc/hosts
followed by uninstall + install using " apt-get install boinc-client boinc-manager "
.