diff --git a/Lib/asyncore.py b/Lib/asyncore.py
index c23c8aa3fe4..c3b9d769549 100644
--- a/Lib/asyncore.py
+++ b/Lib/asyncore.py
@@ -435,8 +435,11 @@ class dispatcher:
             self.handle_read()
 
     def handle_connect_event(self):
-        self.connected = True
+        err = self.socket.getsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_ERROR)
+        if err != 0:
+            raise socket.error(err, _strerror(err))
         self.handle_connect()
+        self.connected = True
 
     def handle_write_event(self):
         if self.accepting:
diff --git a/Misc/ACKS b/Misc/ACKS
index 089939ee1e2..e3aa41cf5ee 100644
--- a/Misc/ACKS
+++ b/Misc/ACKS
@@ -871,3 +871,4 @@ Uwe Zessin
 Tarek Ziadé
 Peter Åstrand
 Andrej Krpic
+Alexander Shigin
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 545ef74f21c..dd5252cce2c 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #2944: asyncore doesn't handle connection refused correctly.
+
 - Issue #3196: email header decoding is now forgiving if an RFC2047
   encoded word encoded in base64 is lacking padding.