Hi,
Edit C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file and add 127.0.0.1 localhost entry.
Also check that the TCP/IP stack is loaded in networking.

>I have a strange problem where I cannot run localhost on my Windows XP Pro system. I have re-installed IIS and ASP to no avail. IIS seems to be running OK, and I can http://127.0.0.1 - which prompts me for a user name and password, then runs http://127.0.0.1/localstart.asp. But when I http://localhost my browser just hangs trying to access localhost. After 5 minutes I get the typical "The page cannot be displayed".
>
>If I ping 127.0.0.1 I get a reply from 127.0.0.1m but when I ping localhost, instead of the expected reply from 127.0.0.1, I get a reply from ::1
>
>C:\Documents and Settings\Chris>ping localhost
>
>Pinging DELL01.coherent.local [::1] with 32 bytes of data:
>
>Reply from ::1: time<1ms
>Reply from ::1: time<1ms
>Reply from ::1: time<1ms
>Reply from ::1: time<1ms
>
>Ping statistics for ::1:
> Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
>Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
> Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
>
>My PC name is DELL01, and is set up as a part of the domain COHERENT. However I only occasionally log into the domain, since the server is not always running, so I always log onto my local PC only. This behaviour is "new", i.e. it has only jsut started happening, so I don't think that the behaviour is a consequence of how I operate re the domain server.
>
>Can anyone help me with this - how to I reset localhost to the IP address 127.0.0.1 ?