Client connection on localhost fails when Internet connection is down

Question

I have a .net service that runs an HTTPListener on port 8080.

In this scenario, we are running a client on the same machine as the server, connecting at localhost:8080.

On our demo machine (great!), when the internet is not connected, all connections to the server fail.

I do have two errors in my logs:

The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request   at System.Net.HttpListener.EndGetContext(IAsyncResult asyncResult)

AND

Unexpected error: The handle is invalid

When i run netstat on the demo machine, I notice that with a network connection, the failing machine has a local address listening at COMPUTERNAME:8080. However, other working machines have 0.0.0.0:8080 listed in this place.

There doesn't seem to be any firewall running.

EDIT: The demo machine is Windows XP, and this has happened before (also on a Windows XP machine) but I'm not currently able to reproduce it, even on a Windows XP install.)

Any idea what the problem is?

Answer 1

Clutching straws here mate, but try ignoring the exceptions and looking at why localhost stops working in relation to the net connection:

http://classicasp.aspfaq.com/general/why-can-t-i-browse-localhost-without-an-internet-connection.html

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-server-73/apache-on-localhost-with-no-internet-connection-not-starting-643941/

Sorry I can't be more helpful.