I’ve used XAMPP for Windows on my laptop as a testing server for over a year with no problems. Today, though, I started the Apache and MySQL services as I have many times in the past only to find that both localhost and 127.0.0.1 did not work in my browser. Here’s some of the things I tried that did no good and some notable facts:
- I tried localhost:80 and 127.0.0.1:80 with no effect
- I disabled the Windows firewall. No dice.
- I uninstalled the Apache service. No change.
- I uninstalled/reinstalled XAMPP multiple times with multiple versions. No change.
- When I would put localhost in the browser, I did not receive a "Page cannot be found" error. Instead, the status bar would indicate "Waiting for localhost." I waited more than ten minutes to see if anything would happen at one point. Nothing did: The screen remained white.
- It didn’t matter what browser I used. IE, Firefox, and Opera all sat there and waited while nothing happened.
- I have made no system changes since the last time I ran XAMPP except for the regular barrage of Windows Updates.
While I don’t know exactly what broke my XAMPP installation, I can almost guarantee that a Windows Update killed it. I know Microsoft can’t keep every program under the sun from breaking with its updates, it could do a better job of telling you exactly what each update does without having to dig through 500 lines of the KB articles. Anyway…
I managed to fix the problem, as per this article posted in the Apache Friends forums. In the C:\program files\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.conf file, I added the following line:
Win32DisableAcceptEx
From the best I can tell, this has something to do with Apache’s interaction with Windows’ WinSock 2 API. I’d say some security update managed to fix a problem in WinSock but break Apache. It makes me feel really stupid that I don’t know exactly what caused the problem or exactly how the solution actually fixed it. I’m just glad everything is working now. I can actually get to work on the project I needed the server for in the first place.
Hi mate,
Suffering the same issue here. Tried all of your points above. Even installed WAMP (http://www.wampserver.com/en/) – nothing.
Tried changing up the ports in the httpd.conf file (see below), but still no luck:
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 80
ServerName localhost:80
– switched all 80’s for 8080’s and port forwarded in the URL (http://localhost:8080/ & http://localhost:8080/ index.php) – nothing.
Fresh Win XP64 install here. I’m *really* hoping this isn’t something Windows update has thrown into the works, otherwise my chances of rectifying this is zero. I may as well reformat and reinstall the OS :[
Any help appreciated, and thanks for this post – my last hope really. Nice to know it’s not just me suffering the same problem.
Thanks,
L
Lewis,
I saw on the ApacheFriends forum that you decided it was a 64-bit problem. So for anyone who may have the issue outlined above, as best as anyone knows, XAMPP will not work with the 64 bit version XP or Vista. If anyone knows anything to the contrary, please leave a reply here. I’ll make sure any relevant information you provide gets added to the post above (with attribution of course).
great tips, thanks mate, this is working perfectly for me after a few days i got headache because my apache’a strange behavior localhost-waiting problem. Now i can work again, thanks!
You ARE my life savior! I’ve been searching for who knows how long… Thanks!
Thanks trav for Win32DisableAcceptEx advice.. i was trying to resolve this issue from last 5 days and kiwi now its resolved with our help. thanks a ton…