Apache Friends Support Forum

Hi
Just installed the latest XAMPP installer (on Windows 8.1 64bit). Installer finished OK (no errors) but when I pressed Start for Apache I get following message:
13:52:57 [Apache] Status change detected: stopped
13:52:57 [Apache] Error: Apache shutdown unexpectedly.
13:52:57 [Apache] This may be due to a blocked port, missing dependencies,
13:52:57 [Apache] improper privileges, a crash, or a shutdown by another method.
13:52:57 [Apache] Press the Logs button to view error logs and check
13:52:57 [Apache] the Windows Event Viewer for more clues
13:52:57 [Apache] If you need more help, copy and post this
13:52:57 [Apache] entire log window on the forums

There's no information in any of the logs (they haven't even been created) and nothing in the Windows Event Viewer to give me a clue.

Any ideas what's wrong?

Bazzer747 wrote:13:52:57 [Apache] If you need more help, copy and post this
13:52:57 [Apache] entire log window on the forums

This is your hint. There is more to it than what you posted.

Execute the apache_start.bat Script and post us the response of it

Here is precis of the result of running Apache_Start.bat:

An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions. : AH00072: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
No listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs

All fields are in c:\Xampp folder

Your Port 80 is already in use by another program.
Identify the program and free the port

I can see from netstat port 80 - Protocol = TCP, Local Address = 0.0.0.0:80 PID 4. I can't find what PID is (Task Manager doesn't show this).

Can I not change this port to something unused (maybe 8080)? If so, is the reference to what port to use in just one file?

google for PID 4 port 80 and you will find many hits.
You can change the default port for Apache, but then you have to add the new port to every link/request too and you need to be sure that your webapplication is able to work with a different port. For this reasons i would not recommend changing Apaches default port.

Having looked a lot closer I can now see that IIS is using port 80. I read Skype uses it as well, not sure how if you can't share ports but I've no idea about this.

Anyway, I'm not inclined to stop IIS using port 80, I do develop web sites via IIS; using Apache is a new idea to try. I'd rather go down the route of changing the port Apache uses.

I'll search Google for how to do this, I imagine it's in one or two of the start up files, no idea which at the moment.

httpd.conf

Having looked a lot closer I can now see that IIS is using port 80.

technically it is not IIS that blocks your port, it is http.sys, a Windows service which should "share" port 80 for multiple applications at the same time. Applications can register a specific domain it listens on and http.sys will route requests for this specific domain at port 80 to this application. Badly Apache doesn't work with http.sys.

I read Skype uses it as well, not sure how if you can't share ports but I've no idea about this.

http.sys block port 80 only if it is needed (on demand). Skype don't uses http.sys and Skype can be configured to not use ports 80 or 443.

Hi
Skype isn't using port 80 or 443 (the box telling Skype to use these ports is unchecked).

It seems port 80 is needed elsewhere, so I really want to change the port Apache uses to something like 8080. However, I've no idea which files I need to change for this to work. Can anybody help on this one, please?

Altrea wrote:httpd.conf

I've just stop all my VMWare services that were running and Apache has started using ports 443 and 8080. I found a reference to the port name of 80 in httpd.conf (twice) and changed it to 8080.

Phew, hope the rest of my experience with Apache isn't so fraught

PS Altrea - thanks for tip.