What's the code with that GET? (200? Something else?)
You should also be getting an error.log file in your log directory - that may be more informative. You can also set debug true in your etc/config.tcl for an even more verbose error.log.
is it possible that your server that answers intially on port :8000 is redirecting you to either https/443 which would get a connection refused if you didn't have the secure server set up -- or is redirecting you to port 80 which may not be set up?
