>I installed IIS on a XP Pro computer and tried to type "localhost" in IE and the standard localhost/index.asp page did not appear. I then tried typing the loopback address (127.0.0.1) just in case localhost was not "linked" to the loopback address in the host file. That did not work either. The computer has a network connection (because the computer is connected to the internet), but I still installed a loopback network adapter. That did not help.
>I ran aspnet_regiis.exe -i jst to test if an asp.net app I installed worked but that doesn't work.
>I uninstalled IIS and installed it again. That did not help.
>Ohh and between doing all this I restarted the computer several times and restarted IIS several times.
>
>One thing I did not try was to ping 127.0.0.1 from the command window.
>
>Has anyone seen anything like this? What else could I try?

Did you install a loopback adapter because you were having problems, or beforehand? You shouldn't need it.

You shouldn't need an entry for localhost in your HOSTS file, it resolves to 127.0.0.1 by default.

Some 3rd party "internet security" suites have firewalls - try disabling that, and/or the XP Pro equivalent(s).

Trying to ping 127.0.0.1 is an obvious first step you should take for diagnosis.

You could also check out the thread Localhost won't work running under SP2 Thread #963693 Message #963693 (you participated in that one).