Cannot Serve up Any Page

[ComputerGuy]

I am having problems serving up any Web page in my documentRoot (c:/xampp/htdocs). Whenever I try to serve up a page in Internet Explorer, I am prompted for a username and password (even though .htaccess and *.htpasswd do not exist in my file system). I have already tried modifying the following 2 LoadModule directives in httpd.conf (my modifications are presented):

#LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
#LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so

What else can I do? I'm running XAMPP 1.7.0 under Windows XP Pro 32-bit (version 5.1, build 2600 SP3). I could serve up pages correctly under XAMPP 1.6.x.

[dmphotography]

Hey ComputerGuy,

If the default file "index.php" is still in your htdocs folder, then it's fowarding your htdocs directory to htdocs/xampp and you're being asked for your Xampp login most likely.

To verify this, look at the web address in your browser when it asks you for your login. If say you're typing http://localhost/ and it goes to http://localhost/xampp/, then that's exactly what is happening.

So in other words, simply delete the index.php file in your htdocs directory and make sure you either have a new index.php or a index.html in that folder and you shouldn't have any more troubles.

[ComputerGuy]

I deleted all the items in my htdocs directory before loading my own content, so that's not the problem. Any other ideas? As I said, I could load pages correctly under earlier versions of XAMPP (1.6.x).

[Wiedmann]

I am prompted for a username and password

Sure that's a login prompt from XAMPP 1.7.0?

What is the correspondending line in Apaches' "error.log"?

[ComputerGuy]

That's the trouble. There isn't a line in error.log. Perhaps I should check my router settings...that's what I'm going to do at this moment. Perhaps what I've got is a port-forwarding issue, but I don't know.

[dmphotography]

I deleted all the items in my htdocs directory before loading my own content, so that's not the problem. Any other ideas? As I said, I could load pages correctly under earlier versions of XAMPP (1.6.x).

So are you working on an upgrade-to-1.7 setup? I read it's not recommended to use the upgrade due to changes, but I haven't upgraded, so I don't know.


Anyways, so let me get this straight. You're trying to reach say mypage.php that's located in your root folder, htdocs, right? And you CAN or CANNOT reach it via localhost?

localhost doesn't go through your router, so if you're having the same issues with localhost, it sounds like a directory setting perhaps in httpd-vhost or in httpd.

Now if you're trying to access it via your external IP address, then yes, it could be a port forwarding setting. Otherwise it's behind the router and it doesn't make any difference.

Post your httpd-vhost settings (this file is found in xamp/apache/conf/extra) so we can take a look at it. I have a hunch it's going to be a setting misdirecting you.

By the way, have you tried logging in when prompted to do so? It's probably your XAMPP login. I would login and see where it's taking me. You also didn't confirm or say if where it's trying to take you in your browser when you go to http://localhost/. That also would really help us to know.

Hopefully we can get it sorted out and you back on track.

[ComputerGuy]

I figured it out--silly me, it was a port-forwarding issue. I really think I should have checked that first, but I would think at first that 80 would normally be let through any router because that's the standard HTTP port.

[dmphotography]

Ahh, good news.

As far as it automatically allowing the port, it's a different scenerio. I don't fully know or understand how it technically works, but when you're browsing, you're sending requests on port 80 to other websites. Therefore, it's out-going traffic on that port. I'm not sure how much comes back or how it exactly works, but it does. Now when you have a server, the port traffic is just the opposite and that's not considered "normal". If anything, routers and firewalls see the activity as being malicious. On top of that, (once again, I don't know how much traffic comes back through that port)without telling your router were to send the incoming requests on port 80, it will just as well send it to every computer connected to the the router.

Comparing it to plumbing helps me better understand. If you have a drain pipe that everything dumped into and it carried it all out, then everything would be just fine. But if the flow was reversed and it wasn't properly routed, it'd come back and slam into the plumbing closet (the router) and stop or make a big mess. (Luckily the closet knows how to just block the backflow). Now if the backflow was intentional, you would want to re-route the pipe so it flows to the correct place and not just going down the drain in the plumbing closet.

I look at ports like doors and I think in most cases, they're configured for one-way traffic. A firewall makes sure traffic is only taking place through the designated doors and there's no party in a door left open at the end.

That might sound like one nutty way of looking at it, but when you break it down like that, it makes understanding what's going on and what it's doing far easier to understand without knowing all of the scientific technical jargan I just don't grasp anyways.

But yeah, glad you got your problem resolved.

[Sharley]

This may help others with a similar issue reading this topic.

I am prompted for a username and password

Sure that's a login prompt from XAMPP 1.7.0?

When presented with a login box from XAMPP the following heading (AuthName from the .htaccess file) is at the top of the box:
Enter username and password for "xampp user" at http://localhost - or similar.

If that is not present then see what is the authentication name, if any, at the top of the box - in your case CG, it may have had a different authentication name or non at all perhaps, which may have been a clear indication the login box was not from XAMPP but maybe from your router.

If no .htaccess/.htpasswd combination is located in the xampp tree then there will be no login box from XAMPP - time to investigate what is requesting a login, as you did with success.