Problem with WAMP Server on localhost with .htaccess file

Problem with WAMP Server on localhost with .htaccess file

If you have read my article Troubleshooting WAMP server on Windows 7 installations you will know that I run both IIS and WAMP on the same Windows computer side by side.

I let IIS run on the normal 127.0.0.1 (Localhost IP loopback address) and I change the PHP.ini file to let Apache run on 127.0.0.1:8888 (same IP but a different port no).

This enables me to run and test PHP files on the same PC without having to toggle IIS on/off before each run of a PHP file

However I also use my WAMP folder C:/www/wamp/test.php as a place to quickly test PHP files or to download files from my Wordpress or PHP sites to debug and test various parts quickly on my local PC with full debugging so I don't effect the live site.

However one of things you may have run into is when WAMP is running but you are getting an error page when you go to to localhost:8888 and just get an error page like this:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, admin@localhost and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused theerror.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

So you have no idea what the problem is. IIS is off, you haven't changed PHP.ini config and nothing seems wrong.

Debugging

First thing to do is check your local Apache error log file e.g at C:/wamp/logs/apache_error.log to see if anything stands out.

It might show nothing or it might show something related to the last time you ran the page like this.

[Mon Dec 30 15:41:24 2013] [alert] [client 127.0.0.1] C:/wamp/www/.htaccess: Invalid command 'ExpiresActive', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

Solution

Now the problem is basic stupidity. I was testing and modifying a sites .htaccess file by downloading it from the site by FTP to the wamp/www folder so I could analyse it and play about with it.

However I had forgotten to change the name of the file back from .htaccess to $.htaccess or delete it altogether. Therefore when WAMP loads with the www folder being the home directory it will automatically load in any .htaccess file and rules it finds.

If the file is full of irrelevant, invalid or old commands this means that the WAMP system on your Windows PC cannot compute and analyse them all and therefore you get the Internal Server Error message.

Just delete or rename your .htaccess file to $.htaccess or BACKUP_htaccess (as Windows won't actually let you rename a file starting with a period e.g .htacess_backup giving the "You must type a filename" error message as it sees the period at the part before the file extension and believes no name exists for the file.

However after renaming or removing the file then this problem should be resolved.

It's happened a few times to me now so I thought I would write it down in case I forgot next time DOH!

To read more about setting up WAMP Server alongside IIS on a Windows machine read my article on it at: Trouble Shotting WAMP Server on Windows 7 Machines.

Troubleshooting Internet Wireless Connectivity Problems

Quickly diagnosing Network Issues on your Windows XP PC

If you are like me and have a WinXP laptop at home then you will miss some of the nice diagnostic features Windows 7 comes with (we will skip Vista for obvious reasons) - By the way I have finally got a Windows 7 machine at home and at work!

I like WinXP purely because it lets you do what you want without all those annoying pop ups asking you to confirm everything you want to run.

However the other day for some reason I opened my laptop only for my Internet connectivity to be disabled with the message that the relevant driver was no longer installed! Why I have no idea as I had been using the laptop only hours before without an issue.

No I hadn't accidentally turned off the Wireless switch at the top of the Sony Laptop or accidentally disabled the radio from the utility and a quick virus scan using my last update showed nothing untoward.

The Intel Wireless Troubleshooter had all the options greyed out and the Windows Wireless Network Manager wasn't even in the task bar for some reason so I couldn't check the repair function on that either.

However (and this might be obvious to people who know) but there is a little tool you can run from your Start Menu which will diagnose any network issues and fix them if it can. This is probably the same tool that Windows Messenger uses when you use their own diagnostic tool.

To run this tool do the following:

• Go to the Start Menu
• Choose the RUN option
• Enter the following into the input box: %windir%\network diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
• Hit OK

If it can fix the problem it will tell you and if it can't then you will need to look deeper e.g check your router, check your inbound Internet connection and make sure there isn't a local Internet problem in your area.

The diagnostic log that I got looked liked this:

Last diagnostic run time: 08/20/11 13:33:34 HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic

HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity



info HTTP: Successfully connected to www.microsoft.com.

info HTTPS: Successfully connected to www.microsoft.com.

info FTP (Passive): Successfully connected to ftp.microsoft.com.







DNS Client Diagnostic

DNS - Not a home user scenario



info Using Web Proxy: no

info Resolving name ok for (www.microsoft.com): yes

No DNS servers



DNS failure









Gateway Diagnostic

Gateway



info The following proxy configuration is being used by IE: Automatically Detect Settings:Disabled Automatic Configuration Script: Proxy Server: Proxy Bypass list:

info This computer has the following default gateway entry(ies): 192.168.1.1

info This computer has the following IP address(es): 192.168.1.5

info The default gateway is in the same subnet as this computer

info The default gateway entry is a valid unicast address

info The default gateway address was resolved via ARP in 1 try(ies)

info The default gateway was reached via ICMP Ping in 1 try(ies)

info TCP port 80 on host 207.46.19.254 was successfully reached

info The Internet host www.microsoft.com was successfully reached

info The default gateway is OK







IP Layer Diagnostic

Corrupted IP routing table



info The default route is valid

info The loopback route is valid

info The local host route is valid

info The local subnet route is valid

Invalid ARP cache entries



action The ARP cache has been flushed







IP Configuration Diagnostic

Invalid IP address



info Valid IP address detected: 192.168.1.5







Wireless Diagnostic

Wireless - Service disabled



Wireless - User SSID



action User input required: Specify network name or SSID

Wireless - First time setup



info The Wireless Network name (SSID) to which the user would like to connect = BLAH

Wireless - Radio off



info Valid IP address detected: 192.168.1.5

Wireless - Out of range



Wireless - Hardware issue



Wireless - Novice user



Wireless - Ad-hoc network



Wireless - Less preferred



Wireless - 802.1x enabled



Wireless - Configuration mismatch



Wireless - Low SNR









WinSock Diagnostic

WinSock status



info All base service provider entries are present in the Winsock catalog.

info The Winsock Service provider chains are valid.

info Provider entry MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP] passed the loopback communication test.

info Provider entry MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP] passed the loopback communication test.

info Provider entry RSVP UDP Service Provider passed the loopback communication test.

info Provider entry RSVP TCP Service Provider passed the loopback communication test.

info Connectivity is valid for all Winsock service providers.







Network Adapter Diagnostic

Network location detection



info Network location could not be detected

action User input required: Select network location

info Using home Internet connection

Network adapter identification



info Network connection: Name=Local Area Connection, Device=Marvell Yukon 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller, MediaType=LAN, SubMediaType=LAN

info Network connection: Name=Wireless Network Connection, Device=Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection, MediaType=LAN, SubMediaType=WIRELESS

info Network connection: Name=1394 Connection, Device=1394 Net Adapter, MediaType=LAN, SubMediaType=1394

info Network connection: Name=Strategies VPN old, Device=WAN Miniport (PPTP), MediaType=TUNNEL, SubMediaType=NONE

info Network connection: Name=Strategies VPN, Device=WAN Miniport (PPTP), MediaType=TUNNEL, SubMediaType=NONE

info Both Ethernet and Wireless connections available, prompting user for selection

action User input required: Select network connection

info Wireless connection selected

Network adapter status



info Network connection status: Disconnected

info Network adapter hardware problem: This device is disabled.

warn Network adapter status not healthy

action Automated repair: Enable network connection

action Enabling the network adapter

info Network adapter successfully enabled

info Network connection status: Connected







HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic

HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity



warn HTTP: Error 12007 connecting to www.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved

warn HTTPS: Error 12007 connecting to www.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved

warn FTP (Passive): Error 12007 connecting to ftp.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved

warn HTTP: Error 12007 connecting to www.hotmail.com: The server name or address could not be resolved

warn HTTPS: Error 12007 connecting to www.passport.net: The server name or address could not be resolved

warn FTP (Active): Error 12007 connecting to ftp.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved

error Could not make an HTTP connection.

error Could not make an HTTPS connection.

error Could not make an FTP connection. 

If like many people you have now moved onto a newer operating system like Windows 7 then you can take advantage of their inbuilt network troubleshooter which can be accessed by following this guide:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Click the Control Panel‌.
3. In the search bar in the top right corner enter "Troubleshooter".
4. Run the search and click on "Troubleshooting" in the list of results.
5. Click Network and Internet
6. Pick the type of problem you are having and it will run a diagnostic test for you. If you are having internet connectivity issues then you should select the first option "Internet Connections"

For more information on troubleshooting internet and wireless connectivity problems on Windows 7 machines read this step by step guide on troubleshooting connectivity problems.

Problem with Google Chrome and Twitter

Google Chrome 16.0 and Twitter Direct Message Problem

First, I can't believe my version of Chrome is now on 16.0.912.75. It seems like only yesterday I had Chrome version 1 and it didn't change for a good while.

Unlike Internet Explorer which refuses to force automatic updates on their browser users which mean developers still have to cater for IE 6 and non standard compliant code due to IE 9 not being available on Win Vista or XP. I do appreciate that they automatically upgrade the browser when required.

However it does seem like FireFox (version 9.0.1 I am currently on now) and Chrome are in some kind of race to see who can get to version 100 first. I haven't exactly noticed many differences between all these nightly version changes so it must be bug fixing as if it isn't I have no idea what it is apart from security hole patches.

Anyway, I recently got a new laptop for work (a DELL, 64bit, quad core i5 Win7) which is good APART from the horrible, horrible flat mouse pad which seems to go into sticky scroll mode a lot. You know when suddenly the mouse cursor turns from a pointer into cross-hairs and as you move the cursor the whole page scrolls with it.

Tonight I noticed an issue with this and Twitter's new format for Direct Messages which open in a draggable DIV popup.

I went to write a Direct Message and the cursor went into sticky mode. I couldn't remove the mouse cursor from the pop div as wherever it went so did the popup box. Very annoying.

What was interesting was that as soon as this issue occurred my CPU and Memory for the Google Chrome.exe *32 process went shooting through the roof and my laptop turned into a helicopter. I honestly thought the machine was going to take off it was that loud from the hard-drive spinning away.

The only solution was to move the cursor off the webpage to the toolbar and kill the page totally and as I did the CPU and Memory dropped like a stone from a cliff.

This is obviously an issue with DELL's mousepad but it reminded me of an issue I had with my own HTML WYSIWYG editor which was a pop DIV you could drag about the screen.

The editor had a couple of listboxes on it for selecting fonts and sizes etc but because I had a a drag event attached to a mousedown and mousemove event it meant that you could never actually open the list and scroll it down to the bottom as if you did all that happened was the Editor moved around the screen.

It was a simple drag n drop solution which was fired by a mouse down event setting a flag so that when set any mouse move event moved the referenced DIV until a mouse up event set the flag off.

I got round the problem at first by just making the top and bottom sections of the DIV container for the editor draggable which did fix the issue but in the end I settled for what is getting more common as a solution for the old pop up window, the lightbox.

I don't know why Twitter need to make their new message pop div's draggable as they change the backgrounds opactity like a lightbox anyway so I don't see the point in the draggable effect at all.

I know it would certainly help with my DELL's sticky mousepad problem!

Remote Desktop Access Denied Error

Troubleshooting Issues with Remote Desktop / Terminal Services


This morning I tried remotely accessing my work PC which is always left on from my home laptop.
However after my first attempt I was met with the following error which appears om the login screen on the remote PC.

"the refereced account is currently locked out and cannot be logged on to"

I tried pinging the PC and could get a response fine but running the reboot command:


shutdown -m \\mypcname-r -f

I just got an "Access Denied" error.

I could login fine the night before and I hadn't installed anything new. I ran a virus scan which didn't pick anything up.

After connecting to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) I tried running the following command from the RUN prompt.


\\mypcname\c$

But it returned a popup screen with the following message.

"The system detected a possible attempt to compromise security. Please contact the server that authenticated you"

Obviously this was some kind of mistake and from searching the web it seems the problems comes about due to the machine I'm using to access the remote PC which was on a domain and was using different credentials than what I was trying to use to access the resource.

From Microsofts own Knowledge Base article 938457: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938457

Symptom: When you try to include security settings for a user from a different domain in a local domain folder, you receive the following error message:

The system detected a possible attempt to compromise security. Please ensure that you can contact the server that authenticated you.

Note: This problem may also occur when you try to browse the Active Directory directory service listings for the nonlocal domain.


Cause: This problem occurs because the network firewall filters Kerberos traffic.


Resolution: To resolve this problem, configure the network firewall so that TCP port 88 and UDP port 88 are not blocked for either domain.

My Firewall was not blocking these ports but I had no idea what had happened the other end on the servers at work.

To get access back I tried terminal servicing into a different computer from my laptop which I knew I had access to. I could gain access to this PC.

Once I had remotely accessed another computer on the network I ran the following reboot command which when run from my own laptop gave me an "Access Denied" error.

I ran the reboot command

shutdown -m \\mypcname-r -f

I then tried pinging the PC from my laptop and couldn't access it so I knew it was rebooting.

After a while the PC came back online and I could re-gain access to it.

I checked the event logs on both machines and found the following items of interest.

On the Remote PC (I couldn't access)

The Terminal Server security layer detected an error in the protocol stream and has disconnected the client. Client IP: 10.0.9.121.

That IP relates to our server that manages domains om our network.


From looking at the event log on my own PC I could see the following errors at around the time I tried remotely accessing the work PC.

08:32.01
The server could not bind to the transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{AE7A7B4B-3EED-4D2A-B123-1A4F4AB04698} because another computer on the network has the same name. The server could not start.

08:32.03
CoID={C5816EC8-C2E8-4710-A412-F7ECDBC25C42}: The user me successfully established a connection to OurCompanies VPN using the device VPN3-1.

08:32:08
The time provider NtpClient is currently receiving valid time data from domainserver.domain.company.co.uk (ntp.d|0.0.0.0:123->10.0.7.1:123).

08:32:12
The server could not bind to the transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{AE7A7B4B-3EED-4D2A-B123-1A4F4AB04698} because another computer on the network has the same name. The server could not start.

08:33
The password stored in Credential Manager is invalid. This might be caused by the user changing the password from this computer or a different computer. To resolve this error, open Credential Manager in Control Panel, and reenter the password for the credential DOMAIN.COMPANY.CO.UK\me.

08:33.11
The server could not bind to the transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{AE7A7B4B-3EED-4D2A-B123-1A4F4AB04698} because another computer on the network has the same name. The server could not start.


I have since managed to reboot my work PC and home laptop and connect successfully but I hadn't changed my password so I guess it was an issue at the company on their network that caused the problem and looks like an issue with the domain controller and Kerberos which is a network authentication tool designed to use strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key cryptography.

Here are some helpful articles related to the same subject if this method doesn't fix the problem for you.

http://www.bluemoonpcrepair.com/wp/?p=20

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938457

Troubleshooting WAMP Server Installation on Windows 7 machines

Troubleshooting WAMP Server installation on Windows 7 computers

I like to code in both PHP and .NET or ASP so on my laptop or PC I need to be able to run
both PHP code and .NET code.

As both languages use different web servers to run their code this means on Windows PC's I have been installing WAMP Server to run and test any PHP code. However ever since moving to a new laptop (Windows 7 64 bit) I found that getting WAMP Server to work was a right pain in the arse.

I had managed it on my Work PC (also Windows 7 64 bit) without any problems at all so I don't know why on a fresh install I had issues. Anyhow this is how I troubleshooted WAMP Server installation on a Windows 7 laptop.

After installing wampserver turn it on and start all service then try and access it e.g http://localhost

You will probably be met with an IIS 7 home screen and not the WAMP Server home screen you might have expected.

This is because windows PC's come with their own IIS web server which sits on the same port 80 that WAMP Server does.

First off try turning off IIS by going into Administrator Tools, open IIS and disable it.

Or you could go into Administrator Tools, open Services and turn off World Wide Web Service.

Then restart all the WAMP Server services and try http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 again

If it works then you will be met with the WAMP Server Home page but if like me on Windows 7 you might be met with a 404 page that just says

Not Found


HTTP Error 404. The requested resource is not found.

So WAMP is still not running even though the other web server running on that port is off. So something else is blocking or listening that port.

You can try to find out what this is by doing the following:

Running Command Prompt (under administrator rights)

Typing in: netstat -b -o

You need the -o so that you can see the Process ID column as long as you remembered to run under admin privileges and you need the -b to see which program is running or creating the connection consuming the listening port in this case port 80 on 127.0.0.1 (localhost).

You will get something back like this

C:\windows\system32>netstat -b -o

Active Connections

  Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address        State           PID
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49719       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49721       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49723       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49725       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49727       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49729       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49731       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:80           my_pc_name:49733       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49718       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49720       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49722       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49724       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49726       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49728       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49730       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:1110         my_pc_name:49732       TIME_WAIT       0
  TCP    127.0.0.1:5354         my_pc_name:49155       ESTABLISHED     1368
 [mDNSResponder.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:27015        my_pc_name:49441       ESTABLISHED     1128
 [AppleMobileDeviceService.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:49155        my_pc_name:5354        ESTABLISHED     1128
 [AppleMobileDeviceService.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:49441        my_pc_name:27015       ESTABLISHED     4768
 [iTunesHelper.exe]
  TCP    192.168.1.7:49619      ww-in-f125:5222        ESTABLISHED     4884
 [googletalk.exe]

Not very helpful as all the Proccess ID's for port 80 on 127.0.0.1 are set to 0.

If it's not set to 0 you can find out what process is listening on it by going to your Task Manager, ticking the "Show processes from all users" box and then searching for the PID (process ID).

If the PID column is not shown then go to View > Select Columns and tick the PID (Process Identifier)
option.

So because we are no nearer to working out what is using this port we are stuck as the other web server is disabled and not listening on port 80 but it seems nothing else is. A virus scan with a good tool helps here just in case something is running that shouldn't be.

As I haven't been able to find out what is using the port I have to now resort to a hack to get WAMP Server running.

This hack is actually useful if you want to be able to run WAMP and IIS on the same machine at the same time.

If you have done a default install then go to the httpd.conf ini file which should be at:

c:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.21\conf\httpd.conf

Then find the Listen option which will be under some comments near the top starting with

# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses

and change it to a port you want to use instead of 80 and one you know you are not using. I chose port 8888 a common HTTP alternative port.

So add this line in under the comments.

Listen 8888

This should get your WAMP Server default page up after a WAMP restart by accessing:

http://localhost:8888

However you should also change another directive in the file which identifies the servers name.

It starts with these comments

# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.

So replace

ServerName localhost

with

ServerName localhost:8888

or if you chose a different port then use that instead of 8888.

You will now find that you can access WAMP Server from your PC okay and if you still want IIS to run alongside then it's a good idea to change the PORT of WAMP Server anyway to prevent having to keep turning IIS off (or permanently disabling it).

A bit of a pain to get going but it works for my 64 bit Windows 7 PC and I know someone else who had the same problem with their new PC. On my older XP laptops and PC's I had no problems at all getting WAMP working and it's only since moving to Windows 7 I have had this issue.

If anyone know what causes this issue then please let me know but please don't reply SKYPE or some other application could be the problem as we ruled that out with the netstat -p -o command prompt scan earlier.

Anyway this hack gets WAMP Server running and it is good to know how to debug the problem.

Enable Telnet for Windows 7

Using Telnet on Windows 7

I have just upgraded my PC to Windows 7 and after moving all my .NET projects over was in the process of trying to debug a Web Service I had written to run locally on my PC that was returning an error.

I went to my command prompt and typed in a Telnet command to test my service only to be met with a response that no such program existed.

I am guessing this is for security reasons but to enable Telnet on Windows 7 you need to do the following:

1. Go to Start.
2. Choose the Control Panel option.
3. Choose Programs and Features.
4. Choose the "Turn Windows features on or off" option by clicking the link on the left side menu.
5. A little pop-up window will appear and load in a number of features and programs.
6. Check Telnet Client (and / or ) Telnet Server if you require it.
7. Press the OK button.
8. If you are using a Anti Virus program like Kaspersky then you might have to allow it to update the Registry.

After a few seconds of loading Telnet will be loaded and you can then use it from your command prompt in the normal way.

Moving a C# Windows Service to Windows 7

Problems moving a Windows Service to Windows 7

I have just been given a new PC at work that runs 64bit Windows 7. I have to say so far I quite impressed with the OS and the great thing about Windows 7 is that I can now install IE 9.0 which is blindingly fast and they have finally seen the light and made it standards compliant with support for the DOM 2 event model.

One of the jobs I struggled with today though was making a Windows Service that I had created on my old XP machine in Visual Studio 2010 run on my new box.

The service is basically a BOT that makes SOAP requests behind the scenes to a 3rd party server.

The code was working fine as I had moved it all from a standalone console application that worked but whenever my service harness EXE tried to run I would just get bland _COMPlusExceptionCode errors and nothing of any meaning in the event log.

Debugging a Windows Service was a right pain in the behind and after many uninstalls, installs and lots of shouting I finally got it working.

These steps might not work for everyone but I had to do all of the following to get my service working.

1. Access Rights. Even though I supposedly had administrative rights on my PC I couldn't even install the service with the installUtil [path to exe] command without having to right click on the correct Visual Studio command prompt and choosing "Run as administrator".

However even after doing this I was still having problems starting the service and I was getting the standard

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Error message whenever I tried starting the service from the service administrative tool or from my desktop wrapper application.

After some step through debugging I found an "Access Denied" error message was occurring on the ServiceController.Start() method call so I went into the User Account Control Settings and turned the scrolling control right down to "Never Notify". As I wasn't allowed the logon details for the Local System account I was using my own login details for the service as this seemed to be the only way to get round this error message with a reboot.

2. Rebuilding the Service as an x64 solution and not x86. I tried this due to a weird win32 error I was seeing and just put 2 and 2 together and presumed that something was not being run correctly due to it now being on a 64 bit machine.

3. Adding the following code to the config file:

<runtime>
  <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/>
</runtime>

I obtained this clue from the following site: stackoverflow.com and it seemed to be the final part of the jigsaw that finally got my service and the wrapper application working on my new machine.

I am fully aware that I am not describing all the reasons behind the decisions I made but I am not exactly aware of the whys and hows at this point in time. However if I come up with further answers I will let you know. Plus if anyone else has any useful links or tips about this issue please add them to the comment section.