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Sajee
Asked: 2010-06-27 12:19:38 +0800 CST

Can't connect to local web server

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I can't access web content (like a simple HTML file) on my Windows 7 Ultimate x64 machine, either locally or remotely. I tried connecting to IIS (running on port 80) and the built-in Visual Studio web server (running on port 23456) but for some reason, the request never makes it to the web server and both IE and Firefox timeout. The firewall and antivirus have been stopped. I tried accessing the web server using http://localhost, http://127.0.0.1 and http://192.168.1.109 and none work. The hosts file looks like this:

    127.0.0.1       localhost
#   ::1

I tried commenting out both lines and un-commenting both lines. No difference.

So I assume something with the networking stack must be screwed up on this machine. Any advice on diagnosing/fixing this?

windows website networking web-server

3 Answers

  1. Are you sure the web server are running? Type the following commands in a command prompt:

    netstat -an | find "80"
netstat -an | find "23456"

    If the web servers are running, you should have a similar output:

    C:\Documents and Settings\Benoit>netstat -an | find "80"
  TCP    0.0.0.0:80             0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING

    By the way, if Visual Studio web server is running on port 23456, you must use the following URIs:

    According to your output, it really seems a firewall is running on your computer. Have you tried to connect from another computer on your network?

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  2. I turned the firewall off on this machine. I assumed it would stay off and no ports would be blocked. But this is a domain joined machine and group policy turned on the firewall within minutes of me turning it off, behind my back. So I opened up the ports and now everything is working.

    Thanks to those who tried to help.

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  3. My next troubleshooting step would be to telnet to the port on a command line. Other thoughts:

    • Proxy configured in Firefox and IE? (There is usually an option for 'skip proxy settings for local traffic', if so. Use that)
    • Windows Firewall enabled?

    I don't know if 7 has 'telnet', because I think they removed it from Vista. You could grab a copy of PuTTY and try to make the localhost connection to port 80.

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