Maven build fails with error message Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.4 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved

Question

I'm trying to build a java spring project with maven (default project from heroku getting started -guide). For reason I keep getting following error. The machine should not have any problems accessing the internet.

Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.4:test 
(default-test) on project spring-hibernate-template: 
Execution default-test of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-    
plugin:2.12.4:test failed: 
Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.4 or one of its 
dependencies could not be resolved: 
Cannot access central (http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2) in offline mode and
the artifact org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils:jar:1.1 has not been downloaded 
from it before. 

My pom file in case it is any help.

<project>
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.example</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-hibernate-template</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

<properties>
    <org.springframework.version>3.1.1.RELEASE</org.springframework.version>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>taglibs</groupId>
        <artifactId>standard</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
        <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
        <version>2.2.8</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>postgresql</groupId>
        <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
        <version>9.1-901-1.jdbc4</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
        <version>1.4</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
        <version>3.6.10.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.github.jsimone</groupId>
        <artifactId>webapp-runner</artifactId>
        <version>7.0.34.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.6</source>
                <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>copy</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <artifactItems>
                            <artifactItem>
                                <groupId>com.github.jsimone</groupId>
                                <artifactId>webapp-runner</artifactId>
                                <version>7.0.34.0</version>
                                <destFileName>webapp-runner.jar</destFileName>
                            </artifactItem>
                        </artifactItems>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Answer 1

The error message says it is in offline mode.

If you are not building with the -o or --offline on the command line then there is probably an <offline/> element in your settings.xml file.

Alternatively, this setting may also be applied through your IDE if you're building that way.