[Love Calm Quiet]

Well, maybe I scorched my system by attempting to install MacPorts PHP/MySQL (after having struggled with a MAMP install), but I still don't know why my file sharing control panel should show my LocalHost home page as http://maps.l.google.com/ and my "personal web site" as available at http://maps.l.google.com/~RP/ (see screen shot at http://www.pinneau.us/Google_My_Address.png ). FWIW, yes, my account short-name *is* RP.

This is just the latest aberration, and happened after a restart (C2D iMac 27" System 10.6.2).
Previously my "Your computer's website is available at this address": said http://127.0.0.1 as it should.

Also, I am still able to confirm Apache 2.2.13 is up an running along with the PHP 5.3 that I installed via MacPorts - whether or not that is relevant - at http://127.0.0.1/phptestinfo.php
Also, prior to this glitch I was able to see that I still had a second PHP 5.2.x (and thus presumably the Apache that was serving it up at LocalHost... phptestinfo.php file [ one of them seemed to be accessible in users/~RP/Sites/ - the other in a "HardDisk/Library/WebServer/"

[ *GAWD* I wish that Apache, PHP, MySQL install was drag-n-drop into Applications folder ]

What have I botched up? [ Oh, btw, I did a complete re-install last night of Snow Leopard from DVD and then update to 10.6.2 in hopes some Apache/PHP installs would disappear. no such... ]

[cgc]

I know nothing of Apache/PHP installs but is it possible to install them in a virtual machine (e.g. Linux variant) to play with prior to installing on Mac OSX? I've seen enough similarities between Linux and OSX that it may be a decent test bed. VirtualBox is free...

[Love Calm Quiet]

Interesting thought. Not sure of answer.

Update: Although a reboot did *not* fix the oddity, putting to sleep a PowerBook that had same account name and *then* rebooting caused my iMac to start displaying http://127.0.0.1 again. ...but did not disclose how/why my iMac's system decided it liked Google Maps

True weirdness™

[mduell]

What's in your hosts file? cat /etc/hosts in Terminal.app.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Here's what Terminal shows:

maps:~ RP$ cat /etc/hosts
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
----------------------------
( though this is now that maps.Google has disappeared. Does any of this look bad?)

[besson3c]

First of all, like mduell said, what is in your /etc/hosts file? What are your DNS server IPs? Something is remapping of localhost to the Google Maps domain, these are the obvious starting places.

Really, in my opinion messing around with this sort of stuff in OS X is just not fun. Installing everything into /Applications will really not do you any good, because you aren't just installing a single application, you are installing a spiderweb of different libraries and modules. Thinking of them in terms of applications will just mess you up, as will trying to associate these to GUIs - especially the ones that Apple provides. Getting information online will confuse you, because there is no standardization of paths since Apple doesn't provide a native way for you to automatically install open source software other than what Apple chose to provide.

It really is far easier to install and get this stuff up and running in another OS with native package management. With Ubuntu, for instance, you install Apache (it takes far less time to install since Ubuntu is not a source code building system like Macports and FreeBSD ports are), and you don't have to worry about mixing in what you installed with Apple's bits. You aren't installing into an isolated sandbox, you are adding software to your existing system. Plus, there are so many more online tutorials and stuff for setting this up and getting help.

Ubuntu + Virtualbox would make a great combination for you.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Those were contents of hosts (above):
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
---------------------

I realize that they are not apps (as within OS X applications). Sorry: that was sort of gallows humor.

Yeah, I'm really ready to concur with you. Would you rec Ubuntu + Virtualbox to run on my now-unused (1.5GHz) PowerBook?
Will U+V (or any alternative) permit me to dual boot with OS X on same internal hard drive?

[besson3c]

PPC Mac? That changes things... I don't think you'll be able to run any of the virtualization apps on a PPC Mac.

What do you get when you do a:

dig localhost
dig 127.0.0.1
ping 127.0.0.1
host 127.0.0.1

Were you trying to connect to "localhost" or "127.0.0.1"?

[Love Calm Quiet]

Ah, well, doesn't hurt to check (re PPC Mac)
Now that I've cut off the other Mac with same acct name, I've not been able to replicate the original (maps.I.google) weirdness (even when I reactivate the other system and restart this one: web sharing now shows appropriate http://192.168.1.107/~RP/

I've tried both localhost and 127.0.0.1.

At present I can address http://rp.local/~pinneaur/pinneau/phptestinfo.php
...which gives me specs on PHP Version 5.2.1 [ specifying Apache/1.3.41 ]
(note: this apaches becomes unavailable when I turn off web sharing; it *does* return upon restarting web sharing)

But when I address http://127.0.0.1/phptestinfo.php
...I get the specs on PHP Version 5.3 [ specifying Apache/2.2.13 ]
(note: this apache becomes unavailable as soon as I turn off web sharing in CP; does *not* return upon restarting web sharing)

[ I'd *love* to get some insight on what it means to have TWO versions of apache running at same time - behaving differently. ]

pings are fine. And here's what the DIGs show:

$ dig localhost
; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> localhost
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 63130
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;localhost. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
localhost. 86400 IN A 127.0.0.1

;; Query time: 138 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.1#53(192.168.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Jan 4 12:59:54 2010
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 43

-------------------------------
$ dig 127.0.0.1

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> 127.0.0.1
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 14141
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;127.0.0.1. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
127.0.0.1. 600 IN A 74.54.82.164

;; Query time: 180 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.1#53(192.168.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Jan 4 13:00:42 2010
;; MSG SIZE
-------------------------
Thanks for looking at this!

[Love Calm Quiet]

One other cute little phenomenon:
Although web sharing now shows reasonable links when it's turned on (http://192.168.1.107/~RP/ - and displays home page), the link to "my personal page (http://192.168.1.107/~RP/)
says:
>Forbidden
>You don't have permission to access /~RP/ on this server. [although I'm signed in to it]