'Index of'

[Clucky-clucky]

Hi there,
I hope you will be able to help me! A friend was using my computer now it won't connect to the Internet! I have been making a web page using joomla with xampp! So today I logon to the Internet to bring up my search engine and hotmail and both pages show 'my index' and list the web page that I have been working on almost like I've typed in admin to get into the back!
I have turned my xampp off but now it just says Internet can't connect when I run a diagnoses it says 'the remote device or resource won't accept the connection' if I turn my xampp back on any page and try to go into ie google the tab says 'index of' and shows the website list! Im really not sure what my friend has done but any help would be greatly appreciated - I am a novice.
Many thanks
Claire

[DaveLembke]

Unless they configured your browser to connect through the xampp as if it was a proxy etc, you should be able to connect to say www.google.com and get there.

To help you further, what OS are you using and Version and what browser and browser version if you know that as well?

[Geek-9pm]

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAMPP

XAMP is a server with SQL and PHP and some other stuff.

Let's assume the OP is talking about the Windows version.

XAMP is an item for web developers and/or network administrators. The average user would have little need for this heavy duty developer tool.

IMHO, most users would be better off using a dual-boot Windows and Linux. The Linux can be a server and there would be little need for XAMP.  That would preserve the Windows system. One would boot into Linux only when a server is needed for a project.

However, I have not used XAMP, so I do not know what, if any, harm nit could do to Windows.

[TechnoGeek]

However, I have not used XAMP, so I do not know what, if any, harm nit could do to Windows.

None whatsoever that I've ever experienced. If you (or someone at another computer) don't type your hostname or IP address (or 'localhost' if you're local) into the browser's URL bar to access your computer, XAMPP won't even act like it exists. Having everything redirect to localhost suggests a proxy issue, hosts file issue, or any other cause that could just as easily have nothing to do with XAMPP.

@OP: I'd just ask your friend what he did. If he doesn't remember or won't tell you, check your proxy servers like DaveLembke suggested and also check to see if something's weird in your hosts file. Any troubleshooting that has to do with all traffic being redirected to one website should apply equally here. Anything specific to localhost redirection would help too, but I highly doubt it's an XAMPP-specific problem.

[Geek-9pm]

TechnoGeek, Thanks for the correction. 
Yes, he needs to find out what else his friend did.