Fix Apache's httpd.pid Conflict with Skype

Saturday, September 5th 2009 2:56pm

"Can not delete the httpd.pid" is what I was told, trying to start XAMPP (Windows) after my last reboot. I don't reboot very often, maybe once every three weeks. After a few internet searches I zoned in on the problem: I had installed Skype.

I'm just taking a wild guess here, but I think http.pid stands for 'Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Domain Process ID'. Though it is actually saved in a file of the same name, Apache seems to handle this variable through server port 80. If Skype has access to port 80 first, it will block Apache's use of that same port.

In Skype: go to Tools > Options and click on the Advanced tab, sub-tabs open up, click on Connection. Skype's default port is a random value with 4 or 5 digits and also relies on ports 80 & 443 as alternatives. I set the port to 443 and unclicked the use of alternatives as pictured below.

Port 80 is the standard for general http server connections. Port 443 is the standard for http secure server connections. At present, I don't work on any https web services on my local server. This was my quick hack instead of adding a firewall setting to the AT&T dinosaur router.

This is what I look like while configuring our router —

Bonus Discoveries!! \o/

Open up the Command Prompt and type 'netstat -a' to see a list of all port holes.

Open up Run and open 'msconfig', go to the Startup tab. Look at all that stuff! o___O A lot more going on there than in your Startup folder.

posted by Langel

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