svcutil fails locally, works elsewhere with same remote uri

Question

When running svcutil.exe against a WCF service after publishing it from VS to a remote server, I got this:

> URI: http://myuri/mysvc.svc?wsdl
> 
> Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved:
> 'http://myuri/mysvc.svc?wsdl'.
> 
> There was no endpoint listening at http://myuri/mysvc.svc?wsdl that
> could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address
> or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.
> 
> Unable to connect to the remote server
> 
> No connection could be made because the target machine actively
> refused it 127.0.0.1:8888

After lots of troubleshooting, I finally tried running svcutil against the same uri on other machines, including machines both inside and outside the my network, and get the expected result:

Attempting to download metadata from 'http://myuri/mysvc.svc?wsdl' using WS-Metadata Exchange or DISCO.
Generating files...
C:\Users\Explorer.cs
C:\Users\output.config

I disabled the local Windows Firewall, no effect. So I think I've eliminated:

• Problems with the service configuration itself (svcutil works on other machines)
• Firewall issues (other machines on my network work)

This appears to be local to my machine: something's interfering with svcutil.

Other info:

• The same error appears in Visual Studio when attempting to add the service reference
• The uri for the service/WSDL returns the expected result via browser
• I get the same error with any uri, not just my service

Anybody seen this?