I've found what the problem was, so I'd thought I'd share for anyone else who's having the same problem
Well, the thing is that vista use an IPv6-based TCP/IP stack.
The localhost machine alias is, by default, aliased to the ::1 IPv6 loopback address.
Any attempt to open a soapserver url using localhost to refer to the current machine causes the web browser to hang.
I'm not sure really but I think this means that soapserver is lacking proper ipv6 support.
The localhost machine name does not work because Vista resolves localhost to the IP v6 ::1 loopback address.
And here's a simple solution to the problem
The mapping of localhost to IP address is performed by this file:
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%windir%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
The hosts file contains these two lines when Windows Vista is initially installed:
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127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
First, make a backup copy of your hosts file:
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copy %windir%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts %temp%\hosts.bak
Then edit the hosts file (see this link for instructions). There are two options:
1. Remove or comment out the "::1 localhost" line. Moving it down is not sufficient, as Windows Vista prioritizes IPv6 before IPv4.
2. A safer technique: insert additional lines using your own unique hostname at the end of the hosts file:
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127.0.0.1 myhost # newly inserted line
Then use myhost instead of localhost in your test URL
The second technique is considered safer, because removing localhost may affect IPv6-aware Vista programs that reference localhost.
I found about this on a site about another server, but this seems to be the case for soap services using soapserver/client as well
Since Windows Server 2008 also use an IPv6-based TCP/IP stack, you'd also have the same problem there.
Anyway, I really think this should be noted on the documentation.
Personally I couldn't locate the problem that easily... :/
So, hope this helps others and saves them the trouble I've had
Cheers