Installing and Configuring SVNServe and TortoiseSVN on Windows

When we set up a SVN repository at our local machine using tortoisesvn, we often encounter the problems of "Can't connect to host localhost". This is because unless explicitly stated, svnserve will listen for IPv6 connections where the IPv6 protocol is supported, which is true of Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008. In order to get TortoiseSVN connecting properly, you need to set up the svnserve service as follows (from an Admin command prompt, assuming your binaries are installed at C:\SVN):

sc create svnserve binpath= "C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svnserve.exe --service --root C:\SVN --listen-host 0.0.0.0" displayname= "Subversion" depend= tcpip start= auto


The important bit being the --listen-host 0.0.0.0, which tells svnserve to listen for IPv4 connections. Now start your service:

net start svnserve

And when you open up svn://localhost in your repo-browser everything should be working perfectly.

See detail at http://www.renaissance-design.net.