Windows/2000, JDK 1.4.2, Tomcat 4.1.29 and HTTP 500

[Saeed Amer]

Dear Ranchers,
I am having problem connecting to TOMCAT through browser. Apparently, I have been unable to get attention from experience fellow ranchers - maybe because:

a) this problem has been address numerous times already ( I could not find any concrete diagnostic steps/info unfortunately)
b) my problem is not interesting/challenging
C) ranchers are too busy chasing "cows" :-)
Anyway, it worth another try getting some attention.
I am running Windows2000. I have successfully installed and started up TOMCAT (4.1.29) - I see a DOS window open with "Tomcat" caption and some output. Tomcat is running on port 8080 (default).
When I do the following from a browser, I get "This page cannot be displayed" error message (HTTP 500) :
http://localhost:8080
Here are the env variables:
CATALINA_HOME C:\Java\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.29
TOMCAT_HOME C:\Java\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.29
JAVA_HOME C:\Java\j2sdk1.4.2_01
Logs look OK. I have also checked the "hosts" file on my PC and it defined "locahost" as:
127.0.0.1 localhost
I had older version of JDK and TOMCAT but I have removed them already before doing all this.
Any clues?
Previously I had Windows 98 on my PC and everything was running OK. Is there somehing about Windows 2000 that has to be done in order get it to work properly?
I am damn sure this problem is not new and several of you guys would have faced and fixed this or similar problems. Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Amer :roll:

[Layi Egbeyemi]

Hi there, had the same problem when i first installed tomcat on my machine. It turned out that port 8080 had already been claimed by another application. Ironically that app was an Apache Http server installed by default when intalling Oracle(which i also have installed). First things first, confirm that u don't have another app laying claim to 8080. Best thing to do is open up CATALINA_HOME\conf\server.xml. Look for where your connector is defined on port 8080 and change this to something else(I used my girlfriend's year of birth. Can't 4get dat else am dead!) save. shutdown and restart. should b ok. cheers

[Iftikhar Ahmed]

hi,
seems to be nice tip from Layi....also
if still no sucess, then check your network settings. Some times things just work fine by only changing your settings to Bypass proxy server for some local address, eg localhost etc..(ofcourse this maske sense, if you are behind some proxy server).
-iftikhar

[Saeed Amer]

So, I finally got some attention, phew!
Thansk for your input, Layi/Iftikhar! I have done that check already. In fact I had Oracle 9i on my PC that had taken the port 8080 already. I changed the "server.xml" ort=9080 (and some other numbers) but nothing helped. Then I uninstalled Oracle 9i - didn't help either.
I am using a standalone PC. "LAN Settings" on "Connections" tab are set to "Automatically detect settings".
I have just finished reinstalling Windows2000 (clean install) and upgrading my to SP4 (was SP2 before) - didn't help either. Its just driving me nuts!
OK, here is another thing: when I uncheck the "Show friendly HTTP errors" option on "Advanced" tab, the error changes to:
==========
Server Error
The following error occurred:
Bad URL
-------------------------------------------------
Please contact the administrator.
==========
Does that ring a bell?
:roll:

[nash avin]

Hi,saw your message.Have a question for you(may be the answer to your question).With Windows xp home though.Does it matter which type of tomcat you have with you i.e., .exe file or the .zip file.
I have got both, I installed both the first time I installed the .zip version of tomcat 5.0.16 i.e., just unzip the files into a folder,then set the necessary paths in the environment variable.
Run the startup.bat file using the command prompt,going to that particular directory i.e HOME/bin.It works fine with me,then one can test it with the web browser url http://localhost/8080,works fine too.
Then how do I test the jsp's and servlets in the respective folders??
Is this the right way to do.....
Or use the .exe version and let the installer do the installation.
I dont know which is the right approach.
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
nash