If you don't specify a port when you type the url into a web browser,
most (all?) web browsers default to port 80.
The problem with having tomcat run on port 80 "out of the box" is that:
(a) you might be installing tomcat on a machine that already has a web
server
running on the standard port. In this case, someone installing and running
tomcat
to do some experiments might prevent the previously installed webserver from
running.
This is only a minor problem for Windows PCs, but is a serious issue for
multi-user
systems like big HPUX or Solaris systems, as many people can be working on
the
machine at the same time, and there can be "production" systems running on
the
same computer people are doing development on.
(b) for security, UNIX-based machines only allow user "root" (the system
administrator)
to access port numbers below 1024. If tomcat tried to run on port 80 "out of
the box" then
it would fail to start on any unix system. Windows doesn't have much
security, so doesn't
bother with this restriction.
Therefore, tomcat's default configuration (server.xml) specifies port
"8080".
If you want to change this, and situations (a) and (b) above do not apply to
you,
just edit the $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/server.xml file and set the port to "80".
See the standard documentation for more information.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Birte Glimm [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 3:49 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: why must I add the port number
>
> Hi, I have installed tomcat as a standalone webserver on Win 2000.
> To get a page or a servlet I have to type e.g.
> http://localhost:8080/examples/servlet/helloWorldExample
> but why must I include the port? Isn`t it the standard http port as in all
> other webservers? If the port number is missing I get "Cannot find server"
> and "The page cannot be displayed"
>
> Thanks
>
> Birte Glimm
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