This error tells us that ecoinpool could not connect to the local bitcoind. Either it is not running, or you've set it to another port than the default 8332 in your bitcoin.conf. In the later case, you can configure ecoinpool to use a different port in the CoinDaemon configuration dialog of your Subpool.

In general, ecoinpool is currently not very tolerant towards any errors you might have in your CoinDaemon configuration and if bitcoind is still loading blocks or crashes, ecoinpool will terminate as well. It is on my todo list to even this out and present you a more informative error message and let ecoinpool reconnect on errors etc.

Also, while helping EnergyVampire to set it up, I've discovered some more problems with the built-in frontend that have to be fixed. We used a not-so-easy workaround to get it running. For you and others, it would be better if you could wait until I've fixed those problems properly; you can subscribe to the tracking ticket via RSS. The first ticket entry is a blocker, as it is not possible to create your first worker properly. Please be patient, you won't regret it.

p2k