Apache 2 is starting... (not)

[Acoustik]

About 1 week ago, Apache stopped working on my WinXP work machine. I am guessing that our beloved admins pushed an update to the machine which is blocking Apache. I have tested and found the same results with both XAMPP 1.6.6a and 1.7.0. XAMPP is being, and always has been, run from a USB drive.

Running Apache_start.bat, I receive the subject message "Apache 2 is starting..." (nothing following the message), but there is no response from http://localhost or any pages stores therein.

WinXP task manager shows apache.exe running as a process.

Running xampp-portcheck.exe shows all ports Free.

Any ideas besides doing all of my web development at home from now on?

[Wiedmann]

WinXP task manager shows apache.exe running as a process.

One or two processes?

Running xampp-portcheck.exe shows all ports Free.

You see an apache process in taskmanager, but all ports are free(at the same time)?

[Acoustik]

Sorry, you are correct, there are 2 instances of apache.exe in the WinXP Task Manager processes tab.

When apache.exe is "running", Apache (HTTP) on Port 80 and Apache (HTTPS) on Port 443 show the location of the apache.exe file in the \xampp\apache\bin\ directory. All other ports are free (including Apache (WebDAV) on Port 81). I was looking before more whether something else was using a required port.

Sure looks like it is running... but nothing under http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1. Strange indeed.

[Wiedmann]

but there is no response from http://localhost or any pages stores therein.

Any error message in your browser?

[Acoustik]

Firefox provides a standard:

Failed to Connect
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost.
Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection.
* Could the site be temporarily unavailable? Try again later.
* Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computer's network connection.
* Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.

IE7 produces:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

[Izzy]

Please post back if you find a solution or you get a response from your network admin so it may help others searching the forum with a similar problem and closes this topic.
Thanks

[Acoustik]

So far still no go here. I've tried changing the listener port from 80 to 8080 or 8888, tried calling specific files on localhost (and 127.0.0.1) and still receive the same error message. Contacting our corp network admin is not an option here as running a local web server is not sanctioned (thus the reason I run XAMPP from a USB without installing as a service).

I'll report more if I make any breakthroughs.

[Acoustik]

Still no positive results. Have checked the apache error log - the most recent entries are:

[Fri Jan 30 16:10:21 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.8 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.2.5 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:21 2009] [notice] Server built: Jan 18 2008 00:37:19
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:21 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 4632
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:22 2009] [notice] Child 4632: Child process is running
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:22 2009] [notice] Child 4632: Acquired the start mutex.
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:22 2009] [notice] Child 4632: Starting 250 worker threads.
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:22 2009] [notice] Child 4632: Starting thread to listen on port 443.
[Fri Jan 30 16:10:22 2009] [notice] Child 4632: Starting thread to listen on port 80.

I'm not an expert at reading the log, but the entries sure don't look like errors.

[Izzy]

The error.log seems in order.

Check your proxy settings in your browsers and make sure they are set to no proxy for localhost and 127.0.0.1 in Firefox>Tools>Options>Advanced>Network>Connection>Settings or tick bypass proxy for local addresses in Tools>Internet Options>Connections>LAN Settings... in IE.

These may have been altered by admin if there were any changes in the network system.

Try changing this in the httpd.conf file:
listen 80
to Listen *:80
Save and restart Apache.

[Acoustik]

I've written in this forum, that due to unknown updates and user rights pushed out to corporate pc's in our company, I was recently unable to run XAMPP (to function as a local test server). After a multitude of setting changes as recommended by list members, I still had no success. As review, starting XAMPP from the XAMPP control panel shows Apache running, but it is not. Starting Apache from a command line hangs at a message about "starting apache..."

Out of curiosity, I tried running a few competing portable distributions, and have found an interesting result. Any distribution running Apache 1.x will start and operate correctly. Any distribution containing Apache 2.x or higher will not run.

1) does this new information spark any ideas? Is there a fundamental difference between Apache 1.x and 2.x that would be affected by a "locked down" machine?

2) as a short-term solution, is there an archive of old XAMPP distributions which would contain one with Apache 1.x (It was actually 1.3 which tested ok).

Thanks in advance.

[Wiedmann]

As review, starting XAMPP from the XAMPP control panel shows Apache running, but it is not.

How did you know this?

[Acoustik]

In the control panel Modules section, there is a highlighted "Running" text next to Apache, and the Start/Stop button is labeled "Stop". Also, in the text box below is written "Apache started [Port 80]". If a browser window is opened with address http://localhost or http://localhost:80, nothing loads and the page eventually times out. I've tried changing ports, proxy settings, etc, to no effect. As mentioned, this is only for Apache 2.x or higher. Apache 1.3 starts up quickly and displays web pages.

[Wiedmann]

In the control panel Modules section, there is a highlighted "Running" text next to Apache, and the Start/Stop button is labeled "Stop". Also, in the text box below is written "Apache started [Port 80]".

Fine, all this indicate that Apache is running.

But you say: "it is not". You can't see Apache in task manger?

[Acoustik]

Oh yes, apache.exe is in the task manager as a process (twice as expected).

I certainly appreciate your interest and questions, but we have been through this in another thread (viewtopic.php?f=16&t=33124&p=134760#p134760), so I don't want to waste your time rehashing old information.

I was asked to post again if any breakthroughs were found, and the breakthrough I found was that Apache 1.3 *does* load web pages on the same machine as I am having problems with. Thus my question as to what would be different between Apache 1.x and 2.x that might cause a difference. And also if a legacy version of XAMPP is available containing Apache 1.3 as I much prefer XAMPP to alternatives.

Thanks again.

[Izzy]

Looks like the topics have been merged that your link relates to.


You could try adding this Win32DisableAcceptEx to apache\conf\httpd.conf file on the last line, as it has been known to fix some strange issues.

Save the file then restart Apache.


Here is the SourceForge XAMPP for Windows Archive but not sure if you will find a version that old as to get version 1.3 of Apache or how you can find the contents as some of the older versions have only blank notes of the contents attached - perhaps download and open the older zip archives and take a peek inside may be the only method of ascertaining the Apache version or...

...there is a list of contents from a wiki that has been machine translated by Babelfish from German to English here and the WAMPP versions referred to in the list are those before the XAMPP rename I believe.