Configuring apache / windows to work together for local domains only.

I have seen a good number of posts asking much the same thing.

Situation : You have a webserver running on a local machine that you
would like to use to test some work on before you go live. This
computer does NOT have an active connection to the internet (either at
all, or during the testing phases) and your internet explorer wants you
to connect to the internet in order to even use your hosts file.

The result : The dreaded connect / work offline prompt. Sometimes
different things will cause your server to respond but the
predictability of what and how and for how long seem to be up in the
air.

The solution as I figured it out.

Step one : Install microsoft loopback adaptor
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art...indows-XP.html
Follow the above link. Make sure to test the install. The tutorial
lists this as the last step. I installed it twice and not until the
SECOND time did it show up as a valid network connection for me to use.

Step two : Configure loopback to use 127.0.0.1 as the dns server. Leave
the secondary blank unless you find a reason you need it.

Step three : Download and configure SimpleDNS plus from
http://jhsoft.com. I reccomend buying the license if you plan on using
it for more than 2 weeks.

Step four : Use the quick domain wizard and set up a local domain. I
have found that for whatever reason using a valid domain name suffix on
your domain seems to yield more reliable results. IE -
my-local-domain.com NOT my-local-domain

Step five : Since in my experience sometimes SimpleDNS times out on
some requests you should ALSO edit your hosts file in
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts to include an entry on a new line
for
127.0.0.1 my-local-domain.com

Step six : Add entries to your httpd.conf file for virtual hosts for
each of your domains.
The minimum here is the
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName my-local-domain.com
DocumentRoot "c:/my/root/folder/"
</VirtualHost>

I do believe you can also substitute a specific IP ( 127.0.0.1 ) for
the * in the VirtualHost identifier.

Step seven : Make sure your browser is in ONLINE mode. Not IE's
retarded Work Offline mode.

Step eight : Reboot. This is always nice. At this point confirm that
any servers / services have launched correctly and are running without
errors.

Step nine : Check your new local only domain in your browser. You
should be able to surf the pages correctly without the annoying connect
prompt popping up and none of the intermittent ( or permanent ) page /
dns errors you recieved earlier.

Good luck
Gremlin