Worked fine for weeks - now nothing! (Solved - but odd)

[jkspin]

Hi all! Installed xampp weeks ago, set up windows hosts file, httpd-vhosts.conf, added my alias to the httpd-xampp.conf file & used xampp to work on several html & php sites (drupal). Then it stopped working - my browsers go nowhere for http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 or http://drupal.local, etc.
I thought maybe I lost something during defrag, so I backed up the sites and database and reinstalled. Xampp starts and stays running, so does mysql. Portcheck shows xampp on 80 and mysql on 3306, https on 81... all OK.
I went back & reinstalled using the auto-installer this time - no difference.
OS is XP Pro svc pack 2. I've tried shutting down my firewall & anti-virus, too. BTW, I read through the forums somewhat first and rechecked my syntax in setting up my virtual hosts.
I must have missed something.
vhosts:
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80

<virtualhost 127.0.0.1:80>
DocumentRoot E:/xampp/htdocs/
ServerName localhost
</virtualhost>


<VirtualHost drupal.local>
DocumentRoot E:\sites\drupal
ServerName drupal.local

CustomLog "E:\sites\drupal\logs\drupal.local.access.log" combined
ErrorLog "E:\sites\drupal\logs\drupal.local.error.log"

<Directory "E:\sites\drupal">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Any help out there? Thanks - john

[ifokkema]

my browsers go nowhere for http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 or http://drupal.local, etc.

What do you mean here - do you get an error message? Do you get a host not found? Something useful in your apache access or error logs?

[jkspin]

Nothing in the error log. Host found: used command line "netstat -an" to check port status. All showed OK with Xampp (apache.exe) listening on 80, so it is not Xampp. Checked firewall settings - all ok. I can reach my own IP through the command window. So something is blocking me from accessing localhost with a browser. Haven't found it yet. Any ideas?

[ifokkema]

Let's see if I understand correctly: you CAN get a reply on port 80 of 'localhost' when accessing the server through the console, but not through the browser?!?? Or do you mean using ping?

You can contact port 80 from your console with telnet also:
telnet localhost 80

My bet is that if it doesn't work using your browser, it won't using the console, either. Otherwise, the problem is from within your browser.

Does your browser return a error message, or just sits there waiting for an answer? Did you verify that Apache listens on port 80 of ALL IP-addresses?

Ivo

[jkspin]

ifokkema,
Yes, I could get to localhost through a command window (tenet command, too), but not through a browser. Apache was listening 0.0.0.0:80.
When you asked about the browser returning an error or just sitting there you turned on a light. The browsers would just sit waiting for an answer. That got me wondering about cpu usage. It was 100%! My httpd.conf file did not have the DisableWin32 AcceptEx line in it, so I typed it in at the bottom, and HELLO? -that fixed the problem!
My only question is: Why did Xampp work for weeks on both my desktop and laptop with AcceptEx enabled, and then just quit? What changed? I did not modify my Xampp intallation, as it was working fine. It is a mystery to me, so I'd be interested if you or anyone else could enlighten me.

Thanks! -john

[ifokkema]

Hi John,

Great that it works now! About the DisableWin32 AcceptEx thing I don't know, but it's a very good thing for me to keep in mind if it ever happens to me