Why can't I access localhost on my browsers :'(

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Hello there, I've just recently installed Xampp on my freshly formatted PC (OS is Windows 8.1), got Apache and MySQL running, but when I tried to access localhost via my installed browsers (Firefox and Chrome) it just wouldn't load..PhpMyAdmin is the one I'm familiar with when developing simple database systems using VB.Net and this is really an annoying issue. Anyone care to point out the solution to my problem? Much thanks in advance..

Posted 7-Jan-15 22:53pm

Boy Balantoy

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KaushalJB 8-Jan-15 5:03am

How do you access your localhost in URL ? can you type here ?

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:31am

i access it by typing localhost on the address of my browser, it worked before with when i still have windows 8.0, now that i've clean installed 8.1 it doesnt work anymore..

Praveen Kumar Upadhyay 8-Jan-15 5:16am

If your Apache running? If yes then your page must load in localhost.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:28am

Yeah, my apache is running..

Praveen Kumar Upadhyay 8-Jan-15 9:32am

You accepted the solution. Your problem is resolved I guess.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:39am

sorry but it still wasn't solved I just dumbly managed to clicked it thinking its a way of saying thanks..i didn't realize it wud reflect it to be an acceptance that my problem was solved haha! Kinda getting crazy coz deadline lurks and i still havent solved this issue..

Praveen Kumar Upadhyay 8-Jan-15 9:41am

Okay. Now tell me what is the URL you are trying to access. Please mention the URL.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:49am

I just type "localhost" coz it usually does the trick before, when it didn't work i typed http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ and still no result..

Praveen Kumar Upadhyay 8-Jan-15 9:52am

See there can be only two thing behind this.
1)Apache is not configured properly
2)Some other application is using 80 port.

Check if anything else is running on 80 port. Check appache config once and make sure that it is using Port 80.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:06am

gee..wait..I remember installing a software named Psiphon that my friend recommended me to try out..its a software that he say would allow me to bypass the data cap limit of my ISP..but it didnt work and i toasted it..does it somehow made all these troubles for me? thanks btw for the effort trying to keep up with my dumbness ryt now.. :)

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:07am

it sure does use Port 80 on the xampp control panel config settings..geez..

Suvendu Shekhar Giri 8-Jan-15 5:21am

Not sufficient info to find out the issue. Update the question with little more details :)

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:42am

Even I am dumbfounded so far coz I still haven't done any tinkering with any settings of my fresh installation of windows 8.1. I just installed vb 2010, MySQL .net connector, notepad++ before installing Xampp. When i tried to access my localhost to import a back up of my old mysql databases localhost cant be accessed anymore..

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 5:30am

Your services may be configured to listen only on a single IP address (localhost or network interface IP) or a different port (e.g. 8080 instead of 80).

Open a command window as administrator and type 'netstat -ban -p TCP'.
Check if the expected services like Apache are listening and if so note the IP addresses and ports they are listening on. These can be used to connect to the service.

Peter Leow 8-Jan-15 5:32am

Apache running? if so, what is its port number (you can find it out from the xampp control panel). Do you also have IIS running on the same machine?

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:29am

I dont have IIS running on the same machine..apache's port number is 80 - Main Port 443 - SSL Port.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 5:42am

its a fresh installation and I haven't tinkered with any configuration settings in Xampp as of yet usually i press the "admin" button beside MySQL in the xampp UI to load localhost in my browser. When this failed, I tried to type in localhost in the URL coz this usually gets the job done before, but now it doesnt work..I'm still a newbie thats why I am scratching my head on how to solve this myself til I figured it wouldnt hurt to try online assistance from the masters :) :)

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 8:24am

So it has worked initially and does not work anymore?
Than you have changed something.

There is not enough information to solve the problem. We can only poke around.

I tried to help by requesting to use the netstat command to see which services are running and on which ports. You can then try to access the service with your browser by entering IP address and port (e.g. 127.0.0.1:8080 for a webserver listening on port 8080 on the loopback interface).

If you are referring to a specific comment or answer you should also reply to that and not to your own question. When doing so (like I do here to one of your comments) a mail notification will be send.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:18am

It worked on my windows 8.0 installation but after I installed a clean install of 8.1 and installed xampp and MySQL Connector, I've ran Apache and MySQL on the xampp GUI then accessed localhost through my browser, then thats it, it always fail to load..thanks by the way for the heads up..I'm still getting the feel for this site..its working wonders for me! :)

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 9:24am

tried it and netstat shows httpd.exe are listening for connections..isnt that the apache module? beats me.. eeerk :(

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 9:27am

That should be the Apache server. Try to connect using the IP and port (if not 80). If that fails, it is probably a firewall setting.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:09am

i turned off my firewall to check..it still does not solve my problem..men, this is driving me nuts..

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 10:14am

What kind of error did you get when trying to open the page?
A timeout or an error page?

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:22am

it doesnt show anything on the page, its just blank, but the tab though shows the xampp icon..beats me..never encountered this before..i've been using this kind of approach for 4 years now.. :|

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 10:26am

Then the Apache is working and delivers you a blank page. Check this by viewing the page source (Ctrl+U with Firefox).
It seems that the forwarding to PhpMyAdmin fails (Apache setup) or PhpMyAdmin is not running.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:28am

yeah, the page source is as blank as blank could ever be..

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 10:33am

No headers?
Then the Apache setup is wrong. There should be a default main page in the Apache document root (which might forward to PhpMyAdmin). The log files should state if files are missing or access is restricted.

Boy Balantoy 9-Jan-15 10:20am

thanks Chief, I guess i am not the a patient kind so I just reformatted my PC so I could get things done without trying to figure it all out what went wrong..ur help is very much appreciated though..thanks again! :)

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:29am

i tried uninstalling / reinstalling xampp twice already but still get the same result..

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 10:28am

You should also check the Apache and PhpMyAdmin log files.
I have used XAMP with Linux only. So I don't know where to find them on Windows.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:37am

I tried it already but trying to make sense of what the log entries meant are kinda making me contemplate suicide right now..haha..:)

Jochen Arndt 8-Jan-15 10:40am

Post the relevant entries here by adding them to your question (green Improve question link). Others here may know them.

Or use a search engine with the quoted error messages (without time stamp of course).

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 7:03am

tried uncommenting the localhost stuff in my host file but to no effect :(

3 solutions

Solution 1

Did you check your hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.
It should have,
127.0.0.1 localhost

Posted 7-Jan-15 23:19pm

AKGaonkar

Comments

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 5:46am

my host file looks like this :

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Praveen Kumar Upadhyay 8-Jan-15 9:56am

Just remove # from below line and save it
# 127.0.0.1 localhost

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:11am

I already tried it, no effect.. (sigh!)

Praveen Kumar Upadhyay 8-Jan-15 10:12am

It's a hard case then. You need to contact someone from the network team or server team who knows well about all these. They need to check manually on your system.

Boy Balantoy 8-Jan-15 10:17am

geez..too bad there's no such team available to help me in here (my place) coz I work freelance..haha! I guess I still have a lot to learn about all the nuts and bolts of it.. :) thanks though..If by the end of the day this problem is not yet solved I guess I'll do another clean installation of windows 8.1 just to make sure..thanks for accomodating my questions by the way :)

Solution 3

If you set it up apache server on port 8080 for XAMPP instalation, just type localhost:8080 and you will get what you need :)

Posted 2-Dec-20 2:11am

Member 15009762

Updated 2-Dec-20 2:23am

v2

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Boy Balantoy · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-09T04:09:00

Solution 2

Okay, no hacking was done whatsoever..I just reinstalled a clean installation of windows 8.1 to gt the jb that needs to be donemuch thanks though to all who tried to help me out..especially to Jochen Arndt:)

Posted 9-Jan-15 4:09am

Boy Balantoy