Hi This is so weird. When I try to access any localhost address like “localhost:80”, “localhost:8080”, “localhost:1158”or even <server _name>:<port> etc. on IE8, it either keeps trying to connect or it shows error that cannot connect to the website. But everything is fine on the client side. When I type http://<server_name>:<port> it is perfectly fine and it loads the page without any significant delay. I have the firewall turned off. Using Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Internet Explorer 8 with latest updates.

If you try http://127.0.0.1:<port> the problem is the same?

If you try http://127.0.0.1:<port> the problem is the same? Oh thank you. good idea. don't know yet. will try that tomorrow. :) I have to add that I was able to do it few days ago. This happened all of a sudden. I have been testing Apache and MySQL which is basically only copying and pasting files and editing the configuration files inside the Apache directory. i never touched any system files. It was working when I left the office, but it stopped showing me pages the next day. No one else has access to the server.

OK. Proceed like I told you and check your problem is solved or not. I think you have a problem with your entries in the hosts file. Best regards.

This is probably not related, but I'll just add this note... If you have a proxy infrastructure, make sure that you have your IE settings to bypass the proxy server for "localhost". Additionally what other's do is create a host (A) record in their fowrward lookup zone for "localhost" resolving to 127.0.0.1 for those cases where someone my remove this entry from their HOSTS file. Again, in your case, this may be most likley related to the web configuration.Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

thanks [JM] and MS helper. My HOSTS file was ok. the problem seem to be a stupid one! it appears that IE didn't automatically add "http://" at the beginning of the address in the address bar. after I used http:// manually, everything worked.