For some reason my comp won't resolve localhost. 127.0.0.1 and actual ip work fine. Running XP Pro SP2, iis5, .NET 2.0, SQLExpress, VS Express.

when i try to browse to localhost, or localhost/..., i get nothing.

I thank you in advance..

you should edit your hosts file so that it contains a line like:

localhost 127.0.0.1

Its probably in %windir%/system32/drivers/etc

Should be there by default so it'll be worth doing an a/v scan to check nothing has been messing with your hosts file.

--
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Cider is correct, by default your host file looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost

so something doesnt seem right.

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Ok, i have checked my host file - it is cool.  it looked just like you said it would.  I made some other entries in it and tested them to make sure the hosts file i was looking at was the right one.  And that it was being used.  

I just figured out I can ping localhost - it comes back as ::1.  My understanding is that ::1 is supposed to be shorthand for 127.0.0.1.  I have my firewall off - it does interfere if i ping my computer ip. But it doesn't help my browser. I cannot deal with localhost. it just sits there forever. 127.0.0.1 works fine, my pc's ip address works fine. ::1 in the browser doesn't work.

Now, what is an A/V scan?  Sorry.  I haven't heard of it. But I am willing to try it!

Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms

Thank you!!

A/V == Anti Virus.

Unfortunately when I ping localhost I return:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

run this command netstat -a

is IIS listening on some other port then 80? (8080 for example)

Are you running another server, WAMP for example, on the same box as IIS?

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^^Modified text taken from gbianchi profile^^
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Discussion:
http://p2p.wrox.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56429

uh, yeah. Anti-Virus makes sense. Feeling a little sheepish right now...

No, I'm not running any other servers. I am trying to get .NET 2.0 up. Works fine except that it calls admin pages via localhost/... all the time, so none of the admin pages work. And visual studio puts the code I am working on into a browser prefaced with localhost.

But mainly it just pisses me off cuz I should be able to figure this out. I really do appreciate your help!

when i run the netstat command i am having trouble interpreting what i see. To me it looks like it isn't listening at all.

Can you tell me what I should be looking for? I ran it with the -b switch, also, but I still don't understand exactly what I am looking at. Sorry to be dense.

http://hubya.com/images/ss.jpg

this is my netstat results.