problem with localhost web server

I have Win XP and am not able to get any web server running on localhost. I get Internal server error 500, nomater what server I try. It does not apear as though port 80 is open. Or a misconfig on my part.

I am on a small 2 computer network, and I am not sure if that could be afecting it, I noticed in adition to hosts.sam, hosts I also have hosts.ics and a lmhosts. my hosts does contain a localhost entry, and I disabled my firewall to see if that affected it. It seems to be something I am overlooking.

Can anybody lend me some guidence

Are you trying to connect to the server from the server itself, or the other computer?

Also, are you running home or professional? Win XP home will not IIS.

If I understand correctly you can access it using the normal ip from either computer. You will just be able to access it with localhost from the computer with the server(just to clarify). That being said, I think it is just something in the configuration of the server. I have had this before. One thing I installed, I think it may have been a VNC server, asked me during the install if I wanted to allow access from the localhost IP. I have had things not allow access from localhost, and I have also had things only allow access to localhost. There should be some config tool for the server or a config file. Just check that out and see what you come up with. If you are able to access it with the LAN IP and not the localhost IP I wouldn't worry about it too much. Hope this helped.

it is XP Pro, Im trying to access localhost from the same computer the server is running on. But trying to conect via my local network address 192.168.0.1 on the other computer does not work either.

netstat -a reveals port 80 on localhost being closed. the web servers I was trying were apache, KeyFocus (www.keyfocus.net) and another one called Simple server from analogX.

keyfocus I had installed before on my 98 machine, and its configured to work out of box, but seems the problem is residing only on my XP machine.

It is baffeling me because of being able to set up servers before on 98 and now not on xp.

EDIT: I have tryed again from my client machine, as I noticed my XP machine is actualy 192.168.0.2 from my client's point of view, this worked, the page was able to load, however it still does not make sence why from my XP machine localhost is not accessable

I have that problem too, if I setup a webserver it's only accessible if I use the network IP adress/host name and not if I use localhost or 127.0.0.1, don't know why that is...

Is the host file correct? ie., is it able to properly identify itself in the hosts file

e.g,

Quote:

---

# For loopbacking.
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 MsMittens.localhost MsMittens

---

Also, is there potentially a firewall (IIRC there is one default in XP) blocking access locally? ie., having a rule set that prevents access from being obtained by a "localhost" address.

With me? Hosts file is correct, I can ping localhost and 127.0.0.1 and there's no firewall in the way. Heck, I even can telnet to any webserver running locally but I can't connect to localhost or 127.0.0.1 with a browser (and I'm also not trying to connect to localhost through a proxy which also was a problem I had some year(s) ago)...

The only other option is the webserver's config file. Sometimes they need to be configured for localhost acceptence and/or ServerName acceptence.

same with el-half, i disabled my firewall, my own and the xp one, but this made no difernce, and I can ping localhost. My host file contains a entery for localhost as 127.0.0.1, even if I try my computers name KELLY.mshome.net (mshome being my workgroup) I still cannot comunicate with the server, but my client machine can access the server.

This is a big problem for me as the web server I wish to use, has an admin interface only accessable through localhost, it can later be set to alow external access, but one must get in first, and my config file for the server is of no use, it already alows access to 127.0.0.1, and I added my client machine 192.168.0.69 but that was of no use, the client is locked out of the admin.

netstat does reveal a 0.0.0.0:80, and an entery for 127.0.0.1:9727 (my admin interface),

I can settle for apache, and set up a folder share of my www root directory, that is what im thinking now.

With apache you can configure the server to only listen on some address (i.e. 192.168.0.1). The webserver will then only serve pages if you talk to it on that specific ip address. This is usefull if you have a multi-homed host. But by specificly configuring it to listen on i.e. 192.168.0.1 the webserver will not listen to requests for 127.0.0.1 anymore. Your problem is probably similar.

I checked httpd.conf and its set to listen as default

Quote:

---

#
# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or
# ports, instead of the default. See also the <VirtualHost>
# directive.
#
#Listen 3000
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80

---

However when I put KeyFocus Web server back in, and i try to access my localhost, then I examine my event logs for xp, I get this:

Quote:

---

The description for Event ID ( 5 ) in Source ( KFSensor ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: .

---

apache did not produce any such events other then one regarding an improper shutdown of the service, but that was because I hit the reboot.

You're getting errors for a honeypot in regards to your apache install? Or is the Apache going to be part of the honeypot? Could the honeypot (assuming you have one installed) be interfering with the apache install?

For those not aware: kfsensor is a commercial honeypot for windows.

I had kfsensor installed but uninstalled it before installing keyfocus web server, and before apache. I must not have read the event log clearly enough, as I did not realize it was not relating to the Web Server.

the sensor was removed the other day, prior to installing any web servers.

Could their be any "leftovers" then? Or are you going to get a new EventLog notice for us? :D

that event was the only one pertaining to kfsensor, there are events that ocured afterwards but non relating to web servers or kfsensor.

EDIT: I just did a search of my computer to see if any traces of kfsensor were still in there, there was no findings. I also just finished uninstalling apache, as I had uninstalled keyfocus web server last night. There are no servers installed now, I even removed my ftp server. I took another look over my system events, and also checked my hosts table again, and am now going to install keyfocus web server again.

I will let you know how it goes.

Ok the results are everything works perfectly, I can access localhost and also access my admin page. I don't understand how, but I am happy. I thank you to everyone who helped.

I would like to know what the cause was, I dont understand how it could have been the honeypot, since that was uninstalled prior to installing a web server, but maybe a setting was changed elsewhere in my system.

Baffles me. The web server I am only useing for my lan, since it is against my ISP TOS to run a web server, I should be ok to block out internet access with my firewall corect?

What was running the FTP server?

As for your ISP's TOS, if you block port 80 that should deal with any little "issues" they have. I've been running my Apache (with ACID/Snort) for about a year now and no complaints yet from Rogers. *shrug*

Go figure.

I am on Rogers too, so if i run the server on say 8080 that should be ok? Ive done this before, remaping to other ports but I noticed rogers kept trying to conect and it freaked me out

The ftp server was running on the same machine, the xp (browse master on my network)

I realize it's on the same machine but what software was it? IIS? WU-FTP?

And I don't know about Rogers. I've had friends turn on an FTP for 5 min and get nailed by them. While people like myself... *shrug*

Hit and miss. I think you'll be ok because their scanner checks for standard stuff AFAIK.