Simulate java.net.ConnectException: Connection timout

I would like to artificially create a connection timeout in my java application to test my connection timeout handling. I've had a look at this thread Artificially create a connection timeout error.

But when I attempt what is suggested such as http://10.255.255.1 or http://www.google.com:81 the libs I'm using to make http calls (Apache http client 3.1 ) gives me a connection refused exception instead of a timeout.

[9/07/15 19:28:45:000 EST] 00000088 SystemErr     R IOException Connection refused: connect
[9/07/15 19:28:46:188 EST] 00000088 SystemErr     R java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:336)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:201)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:188)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:478)
    at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor187.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java(Compiled Code))
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java(Compiled Code))
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.protocol.ReflectionSocketFactory.createSocket(ReflectionSocketFactory.java:140)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.protocol.DefaultProtocolSocketFactory.createSocket(DefaultProtocolSocketFactory.java:125)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpConnection.open(HttpConnection.java:707)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeWithRetry(HttpMethodDirector.java:387)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeMethod(HttpMethodDirector.java:171)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:397)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:323)

Can someone suggest what I can tweak or a different suggestion all together to allow me to test a connection timeout?

EDIT

Here is the code I'm trying to test....

    HttpClient client = new HttpClient();           
    HttpConnectionManagerParams httpConnectionManagerParams = client.getHttpConnectionManager().getParams();        
    httpConnectionManagerParams.setConnectionTimeout(45000);
    httpConnectionManagerParams.setSoTimeout(45000);
    httpConnectionManagerParams.setTcpNoDelay(false);

    // Create a method instance.
    GetMethod method = new GetMethod(url);
    HttpMethodParams httpMethodParams = method.getParams();

    // no retries
    httpMethodParams.setParameter(
            HttpMethodParams.RETRY_HANDLER,
            new DefaultHttpMethodRetryHandler(0, false));
    httpMethodParams.setSoTimeout(45000);

    try {
        // Execute the method.  
        int statusCode = client.executeMethod(method);      

        // Read the response body.
        byte[] responseBody = method.getResponseBody();
        jsonResponse = new String(
                new String(responseBody).getBytes(JsonConstants.DEFAULT_CHARSET), JsonConstants.DEFAULT_CHARSET);

    } catch (HttpException e) {
        System.err.println("HttpException " + e.getMessage());  
        e.printStackTrace();

    } catch (IOException e) {
        System.err.println("IOException " + e.getMessage());
        e.printStackTrace();

    } finally {
        // Release the connection.
        method.releaseConnection();
    }

thanks