I wanted to access a php file on my localhost using the following code:

$fp = fopen("http://localhost/test/export.php", "r");

but got a [function.fopen] php warning:

Warning: fopen(http://localhost/test/export.php) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. in C:\wamp\www\test\export.php on line 11

I also tried adding “@” before the fopen, but still got the same php warnings

$fp = @fopen("http://localhost/test/export.php", "r");

So instead I tried fsockopen instead, but got another smiliar warning:

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to http://localhost/test/export.php (Unable to find the socket transport “http” – did you forget to enable it when you configured PHP?) in C:\wamp\www\test\export.php on line 11

Now for the solution:

I came across a solution which worked for me on the wampserver forum:

I think I just found the solution here: bugs.php.net

It seems by changing ‘localhost’ to ‘127.0.0.1′ it works!

So, changing the code to look like this actually works:

$fp = fopen("http://127.0.0.1/test/export.php", "r");

Strange, but true. Thanks to anarchitecton!!!