Skype interferes with xampp and wamp on port 80

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

Finally getting around to setting up local dev - used to have Apache/MySQL running under Windows 98 a few years back...

I tried to install xampp and xampplite http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html but could not start the apache server it appeared to be a problem with using port 80

I installed wampserver http://www.wampserver.com/en/ (similar to xampp, less features but still ok for Drupal) and the port 80 test determined that Skype may be using it

I closed Skype and then the server was able to run and I could put wamp online and view the test pages - working fine

I restarted Skype which went through a reinstall procedure, I guess to automatically change ports, so now I have the wamp server and Skype both running

If you are having trouble with wamp, xampp or xampplite try closing Skype

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

I have no experience with Skype at all, so the following might be unadvisable

...

Skype can use ports other than the default so that it has a "work anywhere" configuration. To set the ports do the following:

* From the "File" menu select "Options"
* Select the "Connection" tab
* Change the port to 443
* Select the box for "Use port 80 as an alternative for incoming connections"

This will set Skype to use two well known ports, 80 HTTP and 443 HTTPS which are open in virtually all environments.

So if you set it to use 443 and DON'T tick the box for "Use port 80 as an alternative for incoming connections", would Skype still work ok and allow the server to run as required?

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

Using Skype 3.8.0.139 (I believe latest version)

Under the Tools menu > in Options > in Advanced > in Connection

there is a text field to set the port number - mine by default is 59040 and I left it alone

below there is a checkbox "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections"

I unticked the box and Skype and xammp are working fine

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

Was that option checked by default, netsperience? I don't think it's right that the program uses reserved ports by default only to bypass firewalls. Those ports are reserved for a reason - to prevent problems such as these.

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

yes it was checked in the default installation of Skype

I did not know what was causing the problem with xampp until I abandoned it and installed wampserver which has a "port 80" test utility that told me there may be a conflict with Skype on port 80

I posted this info at drupal.org and it was suggested I contact www.apachefriends.org which I did

I suppose I could eventually have figured out what was tying up port 80 - but it is a problem when an app automatically configures for a port which may be in use - and I don't have much patience for an app that doesn't work when there are alternatives.

BTW, off topic a bit, I had some trouble configuring xampplite to sendmail with my smtp server. I kept editing php.ini in the php directory (and there are 3 versions of it that come with the php installation) but finally a Google search directed me to apache/bin/php.ini which did the trick.

The error message merely advised me to edit php.ini and of course I looked in the php dir... I forgot from years ago how to configure apache..

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