Fix curl_exec freeze on Windows 8 apache

I've been researching and experimenting with this problem for a while now and haven't found a workable solution yet, so I think it's time to ask for help.

I have a problem with curl_exec, but only on a specific server. Here's some background, first:

• Processor: Intel Core I7
• RAM: 64 GB
• OS: Windows 8.0
• Server: Apache 2.4.4 x86 TS
• PHP version: 5.5.1 x86 TS w / xDebug 2.2.3
• cURL version: 7.30.0

PHP code that detects the problem:

$input_vars = (!empty($_POST)) ? filter_input_array(INPUT_POST) : array();
$url = 'http://192.168.1.100/geekcavecreations/Morti/chatbot/conversation_start.php';
$qs = '?';
foreach ($input_vars as $key => $value)
{
  $qs .= "$key=$value&";
}
$qs= rtrim($qs, '&');
$url .= $qs;
$bot_id = $input_vars['bot_id'];
$options = array(
    CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'Program O XML API',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    //CURLOPT_POST => 1,
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 5,
    CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 5,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 5,
);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $input_vars);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
$debug = curl_getinfo($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo '<pre>Data = ', htmlentities($data), '</pre><br>';
var_dump($debug);

      

        
        
        
      

    

As you can see, I've tried this with both GET and POST and both give the same results. The timeout options listed above exist so the script will not run indefinitely. I had this hang for over 3 hours before I stopped the Apache service to stop the hang (just canceling in the browser won't do it). The exit from the script looks like this:

array (size=26)
  'url' => string 'ht tp://192.168.1.100/geekcavecreations/Morti/chatbot/conversation_start.php?say=hello&bot_id=1&convo_id=78a9s39gut34lurq055in5s6r4&format=xml' (length=141)
  'content_type' => null
  'http_code' => int 0
  'header_size' => int 0
  'request_size' => int 203
  'filetime' => int -1
  'ssl_verify_result' => int 0
  'redirect_count' => int 0
  'total_time' => float 5
  'namelookup_time' => float 0
  'connect_time' => float 0
  'pretransfer_time' => float 0
  'size_upload' => float 0
  'size_download' => float 0
  'speed_download' => float 0
  'speed_upload' => float 0
  'download_content_length' => float -1
  'upload_content_length' => float 0
  'starttransfer_time' => float 0
  'redirect_time' => float 0
  'redirect_url' => string '' (length=0)
  'primary_ip' => string '192.168.1.100' (length=13)
  'certinfo' => 
    array (size=0)
      empty
  'primary_port' => int 80
  'local_ip' => string '192.168.1.100' (length=13)
  'local_port' => int 2546

Data = 

      

        
        
        
      

    

(couldn't find a better way to format, sorry)

Also there are several virtual machines on this same machine, each with different OS / Server / PHP versions, and they all have exactly the same physical document root that is on the host machine. These machines range from Windows 7 / IIS to CentOS / Apache 2.2 and other combinations, and they all, without exception, run the same script without issue and output the expected XML document. If I only run the url in a web browser, the output looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<program_o>
  <version>2.3.0</version>
  <status><success>1</success></status>
  <bot_id>1</bot_id>
  <bot_name>Morti</bot_name>
  <user_id>1</user_id>
  <user_name>Seeker</user_name>
  <chat>
    <line>
      <input>hello</input>
      <response>And a good failed to you, undefined. How are you?</response>
    </line>
  </chat>
</program_o>

      

        
        
        
      

    

I also took the aforementioned XML output and saved it to a file, and the problem script was making a cURL call on the url for that saved XML file, and the script runs without problem at that point, so I also created a layout script that only creates a SimpleXMLElement object. fills in a few new tags and then outputs the result asXML () from the created object (essentially what chat_start.php does, but much less complicated) and I get the same problem. The layout script code is given below:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<program_o></program_o>');
$xml->addChild('version', '2.3.0');
$status = $xml->addChild('status');
$status->addChild('success', '1');
$xml->addChild('bot_id', '1');
$xml->addChild('bot_name', 'Morti');
$xml->addChild('user_id', '1');
$xml->addChild('user_name', 'Seeker');
$chat = $xml->addChild('chat');
$line = $chat->addChild('line');
$line->addChild('input', 'hello');
$line->addChild('response', 'And a good failed to you, undefined. How are you?');
$output = $xml->asXML();
header('Content-type: text/xml');
exit($output);

      

        
        
        
      

    

I am pretty much here. I changed PHP versions, Apache versions, tried countless suggestions I found here on SO for other cURL freezing problems as found here , here and here , among two dozen or more others.

And now that I've written a book to present my problem, I have to ask: how can I get cURL not to interfere with the Windows 8 platform?