Error with "Get Started" on Oracle Express 11g

Question

this is my first post so I will try to be as descriptive as possible. Please let me know if there is anything missing:

So I am trying to install Oracle Express 11g, after I download the zip file "OracleXE112_Win32" - I unzip it, and open Disk 1 then setup. I go through the entire installation process without any problems. However when I go to open "Get Started" I come across the following error:

"Windows cannot find 'http:/.127.0.0.1:%HTTPPORT%/apex/f?p=4950'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. -- After googling this, I was told to change %HTTPPORT% to 8080.

If I do this when I click on "Get Started" the following error shows up: "Firefox can' establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:8080."

I need this to work, so that I can sooner or later connect this to my eclipse, so that I can start doing my homework for my Java Programming class. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

Answer 1

I have found one solution for this problem. In order to explain my solution, I have used some aliases referring to my real parameters. These are:

[ME] = my user name
[MYHOST] = my current workstation hostname (netbios name as well)
[MYHOST.mycompany.com] = my worksation's fully qualified domain name

At the beginning I had the same situation as mentioned above: I was unable to connect to the apex service even after successful installation.

First I have used the tnsping oracle utility:

C:\Users\ME>tnsping MYHOST

This was the answer:

TNS Ping Utility for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
Copyright (c) 1997, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Used parameter files:
C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\network\admin\sqlnet.ora

Used HOSTNAME adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION=(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=))(ADDRESS=
(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=fe80::5d34:78a:5862:64%20)(PORT=1521))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=fe80::c27:54a4:1600:86a4%26)(PORT=1521))(ADDRESS=
(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=fe80::38ab:cdb4:dd77:7ed9%12)(PORT=1521))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)
(HOST=10.9.32.208)(PORT=1521))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=192.168.56.1)(PORT=1521))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=192.168.1.106)(PORT=1521)))

TNS-12541: TNS:no listener

You see above a lot of currently active different IP addresses. Only the most important 127.0.0.1 is missing. I work on notebook so the network is "almost always" changing (WLAN, 3G, HSDPA, Ethernet etc.) only the localhost is fixed. And that was the real case of the trouble. (When I was working at the office environment connected to the office network it was also working.)

When I was in this situation I also started to use the lsnrctl oracle utility. I have seen the following:

LSNRCTL> status
Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
Default Service           XE
Listener Parameter File   /oraclexe/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/server\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File         C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\diag\tnslsnr\MYHOST\listener\alert\log.xml
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=MYHOST.mycompany.com)(PORT=1521)))
Services Summary...
Service "CLRExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "CLRExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

You can see that the service for the apex at 8080 port is missing !!! I have tried also the normal ping which worked perfectly:

C:\Users\ME>ping MYHOST.mycompany.com

The result was:

MYHOST.mycompany.com [fe80::c27:54a4:1600:86a4%26] ping
response fe80::c27:54a4:1600:86a4%26: time<10 ms
...

You can realize the IPv6 address also exists in my tnsping trial as well.

So I have decided to define MYHOST in my local hosts file directly:

127.0.0.1       localhost MYHOST MYHOST.mycompany.com

Testing now with ping:

C:\Users\ME>ping MYHOST

And the answer:

MYHOST.mycompany.com [127.0.0.1] ping:
response 127.0.0.1: byte=32 time<10 ms. TTL=128
 ...

At this point I have restarted (stopped and started again) the both running Oracle services (just for sure):

OracleServiceXE
OracleXETNSListener

And look the miracle:

C:\Users\ME>lsnrctl

LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production

LSNRCTL> status
Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
Default Service           XE
Listener Parameter File   /oraclexe/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/server\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File         C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\diag\tnslsnr\MYHOST\listener\alert\log.xml
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=MYHOST.mycompany.com)(PORT=1521)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=MYHOST.mycompany.com)(PORT=8080))(Presentation=HTTP)(Session=RAW))
Services Summary...
Service "CLRExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "CLRExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "XEXDB" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "xe" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully
LSNRCTL>

You can see the important line with PORT=8080 and service XE instance. So I am happy the getting started URL is working again.