title: RabbitMQ has Nodedown Error
body: <p>On a Windows 7 Enterprise machine, I made a fresh install of Erlang 17.4 and RabbitMQ 3.4.3 x64.  The installation was successful and uneventful.  </p>
  
  <p>I have not yet tried to create my first queue or exchange, but I already see trouble.  This problem is similar to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25409626/rabbitmqctl-error-unable-to-connect-to-node-rabbitmyserver-nodedown">another SO post</a>, but that other post appears to involve clustering, which I don't have.  Furthermore, that other poster can circumvent his issue by restarting the RabbitMQ service; that approach does not work for me.</p>
  
  <p>My "nodedown" problem is evident at the RabbitMQ command prompt:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>C:\Program Files (x86)\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.4.3\sbin>rabbitmqctl status
    Status of node rabbit@TPAJ05421843 ...<br>
    Error: unable to connect to node rabbit@TPAJ05421843: nodedown</p>
    
    <h1>DIAGNOSTICS</h1>
    
    <p>attempted to contact: [rabbit@TPAJ05421843]</p>
    
    <p>rabbit@TPAJ05421843:<br>
      * connected to epmd (port 4369) on TPAJ05421843<br>
      * epmd reports: node 'rabbit' not running at all<br>
                      other nodes on TPAJ05421843: ['RabbitMQ']<br>
      * suggestion: start the node</p>
    
    <p>current node details:<br>
    - node name: 'rabbitmqctl-19884@TPAJ05421843'<br>
    - home dir: H:\<br>
    - cookie hash: PD4QQCYrf0TME9vIko3Xuw==</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Based on the above, I chose to check the status of the node explicitly named 'RabbitMQ'.  I get this:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>C:\Program Files (x86)\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.4.3\sbin>rabbitmqctl -n RabbitMQ status<br>
    Status of node 'RabbitMQ@TPAJ05421843' ...<br>
    Error: unable to connect to node 'RabbitMQ@TPAJ05421843': nodedown</p>
    
    <h1>DIAGNOSTICS</h1>
    
    <p>attempted to contact: ['RabbitMQ@TPAJ05421843']</p>
    
    <p>RabbitMQ@TPAJ05421843:<br>
      * connected to epmd (port 4369) on TPAJ05421843<br>
      * epmd reports node 'RabbitMQ' running on port 59301<br>
      * TCP connection succeeded but Erlang distribution failed<br>
      * suggestion: hostname mismatch?<br>
      * suggestion: is the cookie set correctly?</p>
    
    <p>current node details:<br>
    - node name: 'rabbitmqctl-23076@TPAJ05421843'<br>
    - home dir: H:\<br>
    - cookie hash: PD4QQCYrf0TME9vIko3Xuw==</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Ok, this is barely better since at least it acknowledges 'RabbitMQ' running on port 59301.  But what the heck could it mean that "Erlang distribution failed"?</p>
  
  <p>When I try to research this topic, I found articles saying "be sure you have matched cookies."  Based on that I found <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9673172/rabbitmq-erlang-how-to-make-sure-the-erlang-cookies-are-the-same">this article</a>, which claims the "cookie mismatch" does not pertain to me, because I have not created (nor intend to create) a RabbitMQ cluster.</p>
  
  <p>What should I do?</p>