Skype hogs port 80; beware when setting up WAMP server
I, like (I suppose) a lot of webdev people, haven’t been formally educated when it comes to tech stuff. I most struggle with server stuff, although I’m certainly getting better, and can *usually* figure stuff out, given enough time and perseverance. The latest issue is an example of something that, while not taking me too much time to figure out today, I could imagine myself a few years ago becoming frustrated and giving up on whatever project it was I had in mind. Being a reasonably benevolent global citizen, I’ve decided to share the solution.
The problem:
- want to install WordpressMU on local machine for dev purposes
- the WordpressMU installation page specifically states that you should use “localhost.localdomain” instead of simply “localhost” or “127.0.0.1″ as the “Server Address”
- WordpressMU doesn’t like port numbers in its URL/URI
- apache server (WAMP) was initially installed/configured to run on port 8080 instead of port 80
As far as the first bit, specific to WordpressMu in this case, I found a page on “maketecheasier.com” to be very useful, to summarise:
- run notepad as administrator and then open up the file “hosts” in “C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc” (you may have to select “all files” instead of “.txt files” or whatever in notepad in order to see the file).
- add lines “127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain” and, for example, “127.0.0.1 testblog1.localhost.localdomain” to the file (as many lines as needed for test blogs on your WordpressMU dev site), and save
- assuming that your WAMP server is configured to run on port 80, you should be good to go
Unfortunately, in my case, my WAMP server was configured to run on port 8080 instead, owing to that when I installed it, it complained and told me that port 80 was in use. I had had this issue before, and just assumed that this was a Windows specific issue – but this is incorrect. The culprit, in my cause, was Skype. I’ve actually blogged / researched about Skype recently for unrelated issues, but it turns out that Skype initially tries to work on port 80, and this apparently causes a conflict with a WAMP server running on port 80. The solution is pretty simple – turn of Skype before starting your WAMP server (you can turn it on after your WAMP server has started up), and all will be fine).
If you’ve already got some random configuration files for some other dev sites on your WAMP server configured with port 8080 instead of 80 (or no port) – don’t worry – you can just add another line in your httpd.conf file, something like:
# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or
# ports, instead of the default. See also the
# directive.
#
# Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to
# prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses.
#
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 8080
Listen 80
And there you have it. As usual – if this post helps you – please just take the time to leave a comment.
Cheers, and happy dev work 
