I had a working XAMPP but at somepoint it stopped finding the local host. I had Joomla 1.5 working and attempted to install MediaWiki before I realized that Apache wouldn't start. I needed Tomcat to run MediaWiki, and Java SDK to install Tomcat. So I reinstalled XAMPP several times, thinking that was the problem. I used the new, complete installer after removing the previous version. I'm running XP Pro on Windows. I now have several versions of JAVA and don't know which is which.
Everytime I try to start Apache I get "apache cannot be started" and an "Error 1" message.
I cannot get to the XAMPP page that should show up when I type localhost/xampp. The following return the "page can't be found" error:
localhost
127.0.0.1
localhost/xampp
Even trying the path c:/xampp/htdocs/index.php just gets that page to open in Dreamweaver.
127.0.0.1:8080 takes me to the Sun Java Platform server.
Check ports shows 80 is available. Firewalls are off. Apparently I have two versions of Apache running...2. and 2.2. While xampp is running, Services says both Apache 2 and 2.2 are not. I can't figure out whether Apache 2 or 2.2 is trying to handle xampp, or even if that is how it works. Apache 2.2 is the one that won't start. Apache 2 does start and I get an "It works" message, but I changed that message in the xampp folder to make sure the right one was loading, and the "It Works" I get is from somewhere else and I can't figure out where!
I have read most of the postings here about difficulty getting localhost to work properly, but haven't found one that seems to work for me.
Can anyone please point me back in the right direction?