Authentication Required when accessing Localhost

[Minklet]

Hi, firstly my apologies for asking what is probably a relatively straightforward question. However, I really have looked for the solution for the best part of 20 hours this week.

Ive finally managed to get mySQL, Apache and PHP working, after much shouting and crashing. However, when I try to access http://localhost I get an 'Authentication Required' box asking for username and password. I havent set anything like this on this machine and deliberately left all password fields blank for later editing, in case such a problem.

I really don't know what to do...

If i do have to uninstall all three, what files should I delete after the uninstall process? Obviously I dont want to reinstall with the same configuration still on the machine. I would rather not have to do this though, so any other solutions would be better.

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I'm really am getting quite desperate now, just want to be able to build a site.

Thanks

EDIT: Should also add that when I try to access a specific file i.e. http://localhost/test.php It tells me that it cannot find.

Edited January 30, 2008 by Minklet

[Minklet]

For f***s sake this is the most ludicrously labyrinthine installation of a program i've ever imagined. Ive managed to get past the username and password by adding my listening port to the localhost URL. However, despite being able to use the php info script, it now wont read any other php.

This is a joke, ive been trying to install this for 2 weeks now. How can it possibly be this complex when its a prerequisite to install this if you all you want to do is LEARN.

I found a patch on the apachelounge forum because apparently the dll for php5 supplied with the zip does not work with apache 2.2 Whilst ignoring that this is absolutely rediculous in itself, i followed the instructions to find that the replacement is actually php5apache2.dll and so wont work as it needs to be php5apache2_2.dll Obviously renaming hasnt worked, when i tried to load it apache crashed.

Can one of you please help? I know its irritating having to talk people who are new to things through, but ive exhausted all my options now. I cant think of anything else to do and i wouldnt ask on here if i had an alternative. I cant afford to pay someone to teach me, I don;t have a tutor to go to and all the books and internet resources contradict each other or are less than unhelpful.

[tain]

Is it possible that there is another server responding to your local port 80 requests?

If all you want to do is learn then you might want to play around with a pre-built LAMP setup. Makes it much easier. Try xampp.