Diagnosing Apache

I've been running MediaWiki on WAMP under Windows XP at home. It's been working fine for a few weeks. I rebooted my machine yesterday, and now it doesn't work at all.

On the machine, I can use http://localhost and see the webpages. Apache and MySQL seem to be running fine.

From any other machine on the network, I can ping the webserver without a problem. But I can't connect to it:


How do I figure out what the problem is?

Fortunately, my first guess was right -- Windows Firewall was turned on.

Is there a more deterministic way to find out what's wrong with Apache?

What's apachemonitor.exe for?

I don't have it installed currently, but apachemonitor.exe does what you might expect. It should be accessible via the start menu in the apache shortcut group. Edit: I connected to one of my boxes to check. Apachemonitor just sits in the system tray, shows you the process status, and gives you a few buttons to stop, start, and reset.

When I have trouble with apache, I generaly restart the process and then google until I get lucky. Unless I have done something to a config file I never know where to start either.

How would I have used Apache Monitor to diagnose this problem? How is it different than starting and stopping the service with the SCM?

In the end, you say that you just try to get lucky with Google. How is that more deterministic than my taking a good guess at what was wrong?

I didn't claim to supply a deterministic troubleshooting method for Apache. I just answered the apachemonitor question and noted that I don't have any better ideas than you.

Using apachemonitor is identical to starting and stopping the process with SCM. It's only benefit that I am aware of is a visual indicator of apache's service status on your desktop if you feel that's useful.