>>Up here in Canada, we have names for people who give up that easily < beg >
>>
>>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=17d997d2-5034-4bbb-b74d-ad8430a1f7c8&DisplayLang=en
>
>I guess you didn't see the message on this thread where Tracy Holzer referred me to this same site. As I said to her, that site specifically says, "Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) prevents connections to all IP addresses that are in the loopback address range except for 127.0.0.1." I'm using 127.0.0.1 for the loopback adapter. (Using localhost is really just an alias for the loopback adapter.)
>
>The loopback adapter is working just fine. It's only localhost that's not working.

I Googled ["windows xp sp2" localhost]. The first hit ( http://www.jcxsoftware.com/jcx.corporate6/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=34 ) specifically claims that the update at the link I provided fixes the issue. The MS link says nothing about "except 127.0.0.1".

Have you actually tried that update?