"zero conf client detected"message on server but won't connect with client

[Westside Tech]

I am trying to connect a MacPro tower and a mac mini using a secondary NIC on each device.  The reason for this is because I'm using the primary NIC on the MacPro Tower for my dante network, and primary NIC on the mac mini for my Waves server network connection.  That leaves me with the 2nd NIC port on my MacPro for internet, while on the mac mini I'm using a mini display port to ethernet adaptor to create the 2nd NIC for internet connectivity.  I'm assuming that Synergy uses the internet connection to communicate although both IPs show up on the device that I set as my server unit.  

In trying to make the connections, I get the "zero conf client detected: mac mini.local" message on my server Log, but on the mac mini unit I keep getting a: 

NOTE: connecting to '10.1.6.219': 10.1.6.219:24799

[2017-05-17T15:46:38] WARNING: failed to connect to server: Connection refused

Why would this conflict be occuring?  Do I need to use the primary NIC for synergy and 2nd port for my dante and waves network?  Or is there simply some preference settings I need to make on the network preferences of each mac?

[Paul Suarez]

Hi @Westside Tech. It is not necessary for Synergy to use Internet connection. As long as they are able to see each other and communicate on the network, it should work. You can verify that by pinging the other machine and vice versa. For machines that use two or more network adapters or NICs, you try disabling the other network adapters first and start Synergy. After the connection has been made, you can re-enable other network adapters you need for other things.