Zend Debugger Crash from IE

http://www.tehuber.com/article.php?story=20080918144856669
by justin carlson on 18/09/08
I'm still trying to figure out the root cause of all this. But I will explain a workaround until then.

Problem: Apache crash / restart when accessing any local php app/site. Environment: WAMP install ZendDebugger.dll enabled via the ini.

I setup a phpinfo(); script called test.php and accessed it from http://localhost/test.php

When using Firefox the page displays it's info, no errors are reported.
When using Internet Explorer, the page does not display, and Apache crashes.

I struggled with this for awhile, trying different combinations of Apache, PHP, the Zend Toolbar, Zend Eclipse, none of it mattered.

Apache error_log says:
Parent: child process exited with status 3221225477 -- Restarting.

Windows Error Signature says:
szAppName : Apache.exe     szAppVer : 2.0.63.200    
szModName : ZendDebugger.dll     szModVer : 0.0.0.0     offset : 00013724  

The workaround:

Stumbled onto this while using Wireshark.

It's very simple, it seems that using "localhost" as the url is part of the cause. Changing it to my device name, ip, or loopback all work fine.

http://localhost/test.php - Failed
http://mycpuname/test.php - Success
http://127.0.0.1/test.php - Success
http://192.186.1.154/test.php - Success

Here's some further strangeness on someone else's PC:

Disabled ZendDebugger out of the php.ini, restarted apache.

Opened IE, accessed test page, works as expected.
Enabled ZendDebugger in the php.ini and restarted apache.
Same IE window, refreshed the page, it worked fine, and info shows the debugger is present.
Open a new browser window, go to the same url, apache crashes.

I tried to fidget around with my hosts file, and ServerName in the apache conf, but nothing seemed to make any difference.

I'd love to hear from anyone that could shed some light on this, it could be Zend's debugger is just doing something funky when it sees localhost.

Feel free to contact me at justin [dot] carlson [at] gmail [dot] com if you have anything to add.

9/25/2008 Update

I put in a ticket with Zend, they've been active and helpful in researching it on their end.  I've since tried the site from Chrome, and Opera.  It's ONLY IE that has the issue, and I can't figure out  why. So for now I'm just leaving it alone and using http://127.0.0.1/  I'll keep my fingers crossed in hopes that Zend comes back and says a new version of the debugger is available that fixes it but since they don't officially support ZendDebugger outside of ZendCore, I'm not holding my breath.