WampServer

Hi there all.

I have installed WAMP server and have run it with no hiccups. When I leave my machine alone for any given amount of time or if I was to restart it, upon returning I cannot re-start my WAMP server. It stays in the "off" state. The only resolution I have found to this is a fresh install of WAMP each time. I've gone through this about 3 times now.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? I'm not sure what else to attempt at this point other than installing XAMPP to get some work done.

Cheers,

Tony D.

maybe your using something else in the mean time that uses a port

like skype or similar?

you never need to reinstall to fix an issue, get teamviewer if you need help figuring out whats causing the issue and ill help you

Steven Martin
stevenmartin99@gmail.com
stevenmartin99@hotmail.com
PampServer.com - [pampserver.com]

Hi Tony D,

Am I right to assume that 'staying in the off state' = no green wamp tray icon?
This happens to me too, sometimes only because I'm playing with wampserver on a crappy laptop.

Wampserver is a bundled distribution of Apache, php and MySql and a few other goodies, which provided you have the right pre-requisites installed and despite the sparse documentation, works out of the box. (I know because like you I have installed it many times !!)

So don't shoot the messneger. When the wmap tray icon isn't green it's telling you that there is a problem.
Red Icon apeers to neither Apache nor MySql is running, Orange means only one of them is running. Green means both are running. [It doesn't mean that all sites and links will work]

If you don't like this.. consider the alternative...of getting no indication at all.

With one common exception, If it 'suddenly' stops it's probably because some change made to the configuration has broken something,

The common exception is that Apache, as most web servers are configured, uses port 80. IIS often uses it too, and Apacahe in Xampp will too. So does Skype unless you change it.

So if something else runs before Wamp is started that binds to port 80, Apache won't start and wamp will tell you by not going green.

It's mostly web servers that tie up port 80. they all default to it, and not many 'real' web servers run Skype. People who run web servers etc are aware of the possibility of port conflict and it is handled where necessary by configuring the 'offending' one to other ports or killing them.

Perhaps on a workstaion running Skype the easist way is to go to Skype > Options > Advanced > Connection. and un-tick/disable "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections."

Or you can do as I do, simply 'never' start wampserver while Skype is running. It's okay to start Skype once it's up.

There may be various other reasons why the icon never goes green. I've developed a few trouble shooting techniques for myself when this happens.

To go green, both Apache and Mysql must be running. Wampserver seems to have implemented system services related to these. I'm guessing it's to monitor and manage Apache and SQL so you can find out if they are running, start, stop and restart through the menu etc.

Here's what I do :

Look at /click the wamp menu.
Look at / click Apache, > Service.
If you don't see a red square with 'Stop Service' then it's a good indicator that Apache hasn't started ! [I check for Skype !!}
You'll also see 'Test Port 80' click it... and see if port 80 is in use. (That's about as far as they go with port conflicts)
If Apache isnt running you can try 'Start/ Resume Service'
You can also look at the logs
You can also look at the config files (If you have changed anything - the installed ones work


If you suspect its a port conflict but its not skype...
To help you with what is using port 80 , depending on your version if Windows you can try

netstat -o

or some other variant, use netstat -? to find out which option gives you all process , the IP adress:port being used and the process ID or PID

Then start Task Manager, Process view (with process id enabled in the view)



If Apache is running and the wamp icon is still Orange - it must be MySQL

Look at /click the wamp menu.
Look at / click MYSQL > Service.
If MySQL isn't running you can try 'Start/ Resume Service'
You can also look at the logs

Or you can try the Quick Admn options in WampServer menu
If you have been editing config files, things sometimes break... try these

Open a Cmd session.

C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\bin\httpd -t
[Copy the command above into the clipboard, then in the Cmd window , Click the "C:\"icon at the top left of the CMD window > Edit > paste and Hit enter or navigate to the C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\bin type httpd -t and press enter]

This will analyse your Apache config files for errors.

If you are implementing or have implemented VirtualHosts try

C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\bin\httpd -S
This will tell you how Apache sees your Virtual Host configuration, there may be some surprising differnces between wht you expect and what Apache sees.. If so you can investigate.

As usaul httpd -? will tell you a little about the options.

It helps to do these things when wamp is green / running normally so that you get familiar with a 'good'situation


To save you from constantly re-installing and if you have the space, install wamp once, rename C:\wamp to somerthing else I use c:\wamp_clean.

Install wamp again into c;\wamp and work away....

If you run into a problem that you can't solve..stop wamp (make sure all the wamp services are stopped too, in case they are the problem) and rename c:\wamp to some other name, say c:\wamp_problem, rename c:\wamp_clean to c:\wamp and start wampserver.

If it starts then it's obviously the other wamp install that has a problem. If it doesn't start it's a problem with your enviroment outside of wamp. (Something else is stopping it from runnng)

Try a re-boot. If it works, investigate the difference states of before reboot and after.

You can also go back to your original wamp and see if there is staill a problem etc.


It's all good fun..Right????


P.S. I don't spell czech and it of ten chose. We ewes to half compilers four that.

Hi tdopun,

I assume you are talking about the message you get when you hover the mouse pointer over the wampmanager icon in the system tray i.e. WAMPSERVER - Server Offline

This does not mean what you are assuming it means, and it most definitely does not mean Apache has crashed or stopped working.

This is reporting that Apache is not accepting connections from outside your localhost i.e. it will only reply to connections made from the PC that it is installed on i.e localhost, 127.0.0.1 or ::1.

This is the state that WAMPServer is initially installed in. So that you dont get hacked when you first install and start the Apache server. Of course if you are behind a Router and you have not Port Frowarded port 80 you should be safe anyway, but if you are behind a straight modem you may not be so safe.

So basically while you are using WAMPServer(Apache) to develop and test your site it should work just fine in this offline state. In fact I never use any other state. Basically WAMPServer is ment to be used as a development and testing environment and not a LIVE server.

If you do want to allow anybody in the universe to access your site, you can change this state from OFFLINE to ONLINE by using the wampmanager menus like this [ wampmanager -> Put Online ]
All this actually does is change the httpd.conf file so that :-

This part of the file

#   onlineoffline tag - don't remove
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from localhost

Is changed to

#   onlineoffline tag - don't remove
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from all

This tells apache to accept connections from any ip address in the universe.

Of course you would also have to set port 80 on your router to forward all incoming requests to port 80 on your PC that has WAMPServer( Apache ) installed on it.



PS.
If you are using WAMPServer 2.4 which comes with Apache 2.4.x the actual command used in the httpd.conf file are a little different and the [Put Online/Put Offline] code does not work properly.

Can I suggest that you read this document [forum.wampserver.com] and make the suggested fixes.

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