Hello. Sorry if this has been threaded before... or is in the wrong place.

Has anyone had this problem...

localhost was working fine one day... the html file was in the webserver folder and i could type in localhost and my local site would pop up no problem...

then today... the html file still in the right place but when i type in localhost.. it pops up with the usual error page. all the files are still in the right folder but no local website.

If i was to type in any of these below, I get nothing.

http://localhost/

http://***.***.*.5/ (* Being my computers I.P Numbers)

http://***.***.*.5/~Steve/ (* Being my computers I.P Numbers)

A copy of my files are in my local Sites folder and in my Library/WebServer folder.

I am on Mac OSX 10.5.5.

I have followed a lot of tutorials browsing the net but all dont explain any troublshooting, I found a lot of people in other forums whilst browsing that have / had this problem but no one replies with an explanation of how to fix the problem.

Im not knew to web development but I am knew to the server side of things and general stuff.

If someone knew how to fix this problem and write an explanation of how to here then maybe a lot of people can use this as a resource.

And I for one would forever be in the debt of whoever knows how to solve this problem. It is a common problem.

Thank you in advance.

Steve

And is whatever you use as a web server running?

Yeh thats running fine...

On my Mac in System Preferences/Web Sharing the box is ticked... In Terminal Ive restarted Apache and it says Apache is running (well so I think)...

Im lost...

What's "the usual error page"?
'cos to us, any error page we see is likely to be pretty common

Have you changed any files between working and non-working states?

is the filing system formatted as case sensitive? because then Index.htm would NOT be the same as index.htm
stretching my (little) Mac knowledge to the max with that one BTW

Hey Thank you for the reply. The error page is as follows:

______________________________

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.

______________________________

I know that its not a firewall problem, my networks working fine, and all the web files are in the right places.

I admit though, I was messing around with terminal at the time and probably not sure what ive done.

lol nope its all non-capitals but i did try both just to make sure...

It was working yesterday but not today... In that time I have done something with the terminal.


any help would be appretiated and thanks for the replys so far..

I was messing around with terminal at the time and probably not sure what ive done.

It's a real bugger when that happens

TCP/IP / HTTP protocol error. At a guess you have probably managed to turn off the loopback connector, so the NIC can't "talk to itself", and to be honest I don't know enough about Macs to diagnose it.

I see. No problem... A few hours of searchin the net for the answer i guess

Thanks for your help so far.

If anyone else has the answer, please post. thank you

Do you remember anything about what you might have been doing in the terminal? Were you editing any files?

This is just a guess, but maybe you set Apache to look in a different folder.

If you want post a few links to some things you've found online about the issue. Maybe if I read one of those other posts it'll bring to mind something that can help.

Hello vangogh

I think you might have hit on something there...
Im thinking I have directed it in terminal to search in a different folder.
Do you or anyone else know how to direct it to a different folder?


The only sites I have found so far are already repeated in this forum but I will post them anyway.

Setting up a Localhost on Mac OSX
Perlmonks
O'Reilly - Various information about setting up a localhost and more.
Apache - Various tutorials.

ps. Why is it so difficult to find the httpd.config file on a Mac OSX....

apache > conf > httpd.conf

Find DocumentRoot - tell us what that says.

I skipped this thread yesterday because I don't do Macs.

Since you still don't have an answer, I will offer that mine got really messed up by a windows update. Did you by any chance have some software update?

If all else fails, try restarting the Apache Webserver by running term, and typing:

sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart

That should get you back in business

Hth

Have you found httpd.conf? If not the file is located in:

Macintosh HD/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

You might try the restart Brian suggested too.

Originally Posted by kreativmediauk

The error page is as follows:

______________________________

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.

______________________________

This error like means the server is not running. Try restarting the server
On terminal enter
sudo apachectl start

enter password and reload the page. On my mac I see a default apache page. Before, the same error as you.