Chrome won't access localhost. All other browsers are fine [SOLVED]

[ergophobe]

So I have all sorts of local domains defined in my Windows hosts file and in vhost.conf, running a WAMP stack.

Every browser (Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari) runs these local domains just fine.

Chrome gives a DNS error. I've tried everything to empty the Chrome DNS cache, but I can't get it to resolve these domains.

Why would one browser be unable to access a given URL? Any ideas for how to reset Chrome?

[Hoople]

Have you tried MachineName.DomainName.tld.

Does ping localhost in a command window work?

[ergophobe]

ping works fine and all browsers other than Chrome work fine.

If I'm working on example.com, the local working URL is usually example.dev - so that's what the URLs look like.

[LunaC]

Does it maybe need the port numbers at the end of the url? example.dev:8888

Just tossing that out there since I spend many frustrating hours not too long ago struggling with seeing my local server from IE in windows using VMware (I'm on a Mac), turned out I'd not been adding the ports.

[phranque]

have you messed around with your proxy settings in chrome?

if you're using a proxy there's a checkbox to bypass it for local addresses.

[ergophobe]

Thanks guys

Apache is listening on port 80. Adding :80 to the URL does nothing.

I had checked the proxy settings. Checked them again. No luck.

[ergophobe]

Got it!

Chrome depends on Internet Explorer Internet Options to set it's connection. A lot of things can screw with IE's ability to work with your local hosts file.

I did the following and now it works:

- turn off Search Suggestions
- under LAN settings, uncheck "use automatic configuration"

Fixed!

[ergophobe]

Arrghhh - Chrome has become so annoying. Now all of the sudden it decides that it will not access, of all things, GOOGLE!

That's right, I can't actually use Google with Chrome. The irony

[Leosghost]

Possibly because you turned off search suggestions..if it can't talk to the mothership..it may well auto-sulk..

[bill]

Are you sure you don't have any extensions hat might be interfering with your connection? This sounds very odd.

Do you get the same behavior with an incognito window?

[ergophobe]

The google.com issue seems to have resolved itself.

The issue of not accessing local domains defined in the HOSTS file is pretty common.

The Google issue was a random issue. On another machine, though, I found Chrome the least reliable with Google services.

[ergophobe]

Curiously, I still can't access Google with Chrome except maybe one or two pages after I clear the cache.

I can, however, access it from an incognito window. It's enough to send me back to Firefox. If I could only remember what sent me from Firefox to Chrome :-)

[Fotiman]

Did you ever try firing up the Dev Tools in Chrome (just press F12) and examining the Network tab to see what it was doing?

[ergophobe]

Currently after clearing the cache I can't get it to fail. I"m logged into a gmail account and have activated about 10 extensions that I normally don't even use.

I think it someone has something to do with being logged into a Google service because even with no extensions it generally reasserts itself.

>>incognito

It pretty much always works in incognito, so I assume this is related to an extension, a cookie or the very fact of being logged into some Google service.

>>Network tab

When it fails, the Network tabs shows nothing or a single .png (I think it's something like "success.png" but I could be wrong about that.

Every time I turn off an extension and think I have it figured, it twinks out again. If I clear the cache, it tends to behave normally for a while.