I have Apache installed on a corporate XP (yeah, I know) machine that I can't re-image. I have partial admin rights on the box. I can install software, but I cannot disable/uninstall or change configs on any of the corporate junk.
Random content is not getting served to localhost from Apache. The same content may be served fine (or not) on the next request. It seems like there is a 2 in 3 (guessing at the metric) chance any given request will be served. Apache won't even log those requests. The request never comes back to the browser (IE6 - yeah-I know!, FF 3.6.3, or Chrome). It doesn't matter what the content is html, css, images -- sometimes even the Apache logo doesn't serve on the welcome screen.
I tried several different installs and configurations of Apache, and different versions.
Fiddler doesn't provide any insight. Firebug just sits there waiting for the content.
I suspect there is something in the corporate muck that is hijacking localhost requests or screwing with processes, but I don't know what it is, why it would be intermittent, or how to identify what it is.