title: Maven: Failed to retrieve plugin descriptor error
body: <p>I configured Maven 3.0.3 and tried to download a sample project using archetypes with this command: </p>
  
  <pre><code>mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.graniteds.archetypes 
                         -DarchetypeArtifactId=graniteds-tide-spring-jpa-hibernate 
                         -DgroupId=org.example 
                         -DartifactId=gdsspringflex 
                         -Dversion=1.0-SNAPSHOT
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(Command from this link : <a href="http://java.dzone.com/articles/enterprise-ria-spring-3-flex-4" rel="noreferrer">http://java.dzone.com/articles/enterprise-ria-spring-3-flex-4</a> )</p>
  
  <p>And I got this error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Downloading: repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-clean-plugin/2.4.1/maven-clean-plugin-2.4.1.pom
  
  [WARNING] Failed to retrieve plugin descriptor for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:2.4.1: Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:2.4.1 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved: Failed to read artifact descriptor for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:jar:2.4.1
  
  Downloading: repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-install-plugin/2.3.1/maven-install-plugin-2.3.1.pom
  
  [WARNING] Failed to retrieve plugin descriptor for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:2.3.1: Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:2.3.1 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved: Failed to read artifact descriptor for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:jar:2.3.1
  .
  .
  .
  Downloading: repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-metadata.xml
  Downloading: repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/codehaus/mojo/maven-metadata.xml
  
  [WARNING] Could not transfer metadata org.apache.maven.plugins/maven-metadata.xml from/to central (repo1.maven.org/maven2): Error transferring file: Connection refused: connect
  
  [WARNING] Could not transfer metadata org.codehaus.mojo/maven-metadata.xml from/to central (repo1.maven.org/maven2): Error transferring file: Connection refused: connect
  Downloading: repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-metadata.xml
  Downloading: repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/codehaus/mojo/maven-metadata.xml
  
  [WARNING] Could not transfer metadata org.apache.maven.plugins/maven-metadata.xml from/to central (repo1.maven.org/maven2): Error transferring file: Connection refused: connect
  
  [WARNING] Could not transfer metadata org.codehaus.mojo/maven-metadata.xml from/to central (repo1.maven.org/maven2): Error transferring file: Connection refused: connect
  [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [INFO] BUILD FAILURE
  [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [INFO] Total time: 16.479s
  [INFO] Finished at: Tue Oct 18 12:44:58 BST 2011
  [INFO] Final Memory: 1M/15M
  [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  [ERROR] No plugin found for prefix 'archetype' in the current project and in the plugin groups [org.apache.maven.plugins, org.codehaus.mojo] available from the repositories [local (C:\Users\krsl1254\.m2\repository), central (repo1.maven.org/maven2)] -&gt; [Help 1]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried searching some posts similar to this but couldn't get an answer. I tried changing proxy settings in settings.xml but it still doesn't work. Could you please help me out?</p>