IE cannot access localhost, but chrome and firefox work

Question

I have seen many threads with a similar question, but none of the answers have solved my issue.

I am running Apache on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, on a non-standard port. I can connect to localhost:12345 from Firefox and Chrome. IE11 reports "This page can't be displayed".

Using RawCap to capture the local interface shows that no packets flow when requesting the page from IE. If I do the same with Firefox or Chrome, packets are recorded (including SYN and SYN/RST when the webserver is shutdown).

I have tried:

1. Connecting with the localhost IP
2. Reducing all of the IE security settings to their minimum (including disabling protected mode)
3. Adding localhost and the local IP to trusted sites
4. Ensuring there is no proxy server configured
5. Adding a localhost entry to the hosts file
6. Disabling IPv6
7. Running IE without add-ons

Grateful for any other suggestions.

Answer 1

Not sure if this will work for you, but I think it's worth a try...

1, Go to Tools --> Internet options --> Advanced (tab)

2, Under Settings, scroll all the way down to Security section.

3, Try check or uncheck TLS and SSL options, one at a time preferably.

In my case, I unchecked TLS 1.2 and was able to resolved my issue. I left TLS 1.0 and 1.1 checked, as well as SSL 3.0. You might have to play around with them a little bit.

If this doesn't work, then try the "Enable Enhanced Protected Mode" checkbox, which is located in the same place -- only a few lines above those TLS and SSL checkboxes. You will have to restart after checking or unchecking this one. It didn't work for me though.

Hope this helps...

Answer 2

In my case Chrome was able to find the website but IE and firefox didn't. The solution in my case was to edit the hosts file

...\\windows\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts