Cannot connect to the SharePoint site: http://MachineName:5000/sites/xyz/. Make sure that the Site URL is valid and that the current user has the necessary permissions to access the site.

Errors:

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Microsoft Visual Studio
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SharePoint Connection Error

Cannot connect to the SharePoint site: http://MachineName:5000/sites/dev/. Make sure that the Site URL is valid and that the current user has the necessary permissions to access the site.

Additional information:

"The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error."


(Or)

---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
---------------------------
SharePoint Connection Error

Cannot connect to the SharePoint site: http://MachineName:5000/sites/dev/. Make sure that the Site URL is valid and that the current user has the necessary permissions to access the site.

Additional information:

"Cannot contact site at the specified URL http://MachineName:5000/sites/dev/."


Reason:
You might have provided entry to that SharePoint server in your "hosts" file. The "hosts" file will be under "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc".

Solution:
1. Go to that folder and edit the "hosts" file in Notepad and remove the "mapping" for that server.
2. Reset the IIS.
3. Close and re-open the Visual Studio 2012.
4. Now create the Solution in Visual Studio and you will not see this error.

That't it....