Windows – Running Apache on Windows without administrator priviledge when listening only on Localhost

apache-http-serverwindows 8windows firewall

I try to deploy an custom Apache/Mysql/Php bundle to multiple Windows 8 laptop on non-administrator accounts. Apache will listen only to localhost incoming request. i.e. the user will run a browser to http://localhost.

Apache will not be run as a service, so no problem there.
The only issue I'm having is that Windows Firewall is blocking httpd.exe and asking to allow access which can only be done with a administrator account.

Put it another way : How can I bypass Windows Firewall as Apache will only be listening to internal incoming request from localhost ?

Mysql is running without issue on port 3306 with no firewall rules, and Windows Firewall did not block it, so I'm assuming that when listening to only localhost, Windows Firewall should not block the process, am I correct ?

It may be that my apache conf is not truly only listening to localhost : How can I make sure of that ?

Best Answer

Check your http.conf file to see which port apache is listening to. You could search for Listen within that file.

I made Apache and MySQL run on my machin without admin rights. When Windows firewall was asking, if it is ok to run that process, I just hit "Cancel" - it worked anyway.

Make sure that no other applications are blocking the port apache is listening to.

Related Solutions

Http://localhost:8080 is not working on running apacher Server through XAMPP

In general, messing with the ports that your operating system is using just seems like a bad idea. You’ll end up with weird network issues like when trying to print.

In addition, for me having two web servers (IIS running locally for .NET projects) listening on different ports was important.

The best situation was to simply change the IP Port that Apache listens on (the default is port 80, which is the standard for all web traffic).

I changed mine to port 8666 (but it could be anything above 1024). I did the following:

Locate the httpd.conf file in the following directory

[install directory]\xampp\apache\conf

(mine was in, C:\xampp\apache\conf)
Find the line that says, "Listen 80"
Change it to "Listen 8666"
Save and Close the file
Start or restart the Apache service in the XAMPP control panel.

Life should be good.

The only catch to this method is that you can’t just go to http://localhost/xampp any more. You have to tell your browser which port specifically to use (it will by default use 80), so you will have to use http://localhost:8666/xampp/ (the port is designated by the colon and then the number).

The cool thing is I can run http://localhost:8666 to run Apache and http://localhost:8616 to run my local IIS for .NET projects.

Note: XAMPP install path must NOT have special characters in it. Spaces are allowed, parentheses are NOT allowed. Other special characters have to be tested. Apache will not start if the XAMPP install path contains special characters such as parentheses.

Windows – Stopping Apache from listening in port 443

had the same problem.
I found

Listen 443 https

in the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf directory.

The README file in that directory states:

This directory holds configuration files for the Apache HTTP Server; any files in this directory which have the ".conf" extension will be processed as httpd configuration files.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Http://localhost:8080 is not working on running apacher Server through XAMPP

Windows – Stopping Apache from listening in port 443

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