I've been all through the FAQs and docs... But nothing it suggests to do
helps me connect to the //localhost:8080. All I get is a popup window
saying "The connection was refused when attempting to contact
localhost:8080."

Hi

This sounds like a firewall issue. It would help if you show the distro you are using. But basically the port is beling blocked by either your firewall or your router. That is where I would look.

Hope this helps

Bob

There are many reasons that lead to your problem. I m listing some of the checks that should be done.

1. Make sure that your apache is running and listenning on the port 8080... or some other port
check by giving 'apachectl -V' command .... Tells whether apache runs and the Apache Config file path also...
Check for the Listen directive in httpd.conf file
Something like this must be there
Listen <some ip address>:80
Make it to listen in port 8080 as you require it
2.check the apache configuration is alright or not(syntax) by giving apachectl -t command
3. restart apache server


I think it should work....

For reason I don't know the command 'apachectl -V' is not know. I install tomcat on /usr/local/apache.

ok then type /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl -V

You will get the informations

The apachectl command is not in /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl -V . I got a command not found error

You still haven't told us which distro you're using?

I don't know what distro is. I am running Suse 9.3 and install apache-tomcat-5.5.17.I hope one of the two is the answer to you question

Suse 9.3 is the distro.
Are you trying to connect to http://localhost:8080 from the same computer on which the server is running? If not, you have to either forward the port on your router as well as on the system-integrated firewall and give your external IP adress (to connect from Internet), or forward the port on the system firewall (possibly on the router, depends on the latter)and give your internal network IP adress (for intranet connection).

I am trying to connect to http://localhost:8080 on the same computer the server is running

In that case, check that you haven't changed the hostname, or simply try to connect to http://127.0.0.1:8080 (the loopback interface). If that doesn't work, really check your firewall settings (can't help with that since I don't use Suse), if it still doesn't work, check that your server is running (don't know how to do that; should be explained in the server's documentation).