# Nginx on Windows returns 504 Gateway Timeout when attempting to POST form using cURL via PHP

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-windows-returns-504-gateway-timeout-when-attempting-to-post-form-using-curl-via-php/236106>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [August 6, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-windows-returns-504-gateway-timeout-when-attempting-to-post-form-using-curl-via-php/236106 "2013-08-06T00:33:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/addis_a)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-windows-returns-504-gateway-timeout-when-attempting-to-post-form-using-curl-via-php/236106/1 "2013-08-06T00:33:24Z")

</div>

Hello,

I have a fairly simple PHP script that I have used in the past, under  
Apache, to “simulate an HTTP form POST”.

For some reason, when I attempt to do the same under nginx, the browser  
hangs until some timeout is reached, at which point nginx returns a “504  
Gateway Timeout” response to the browser.

This could very well be a PHP problem (or configuration issue) and have  
nothing to do with nginx, in which case I am happy to take this  
discussion to the appropriate list. But this does work as expected under  
Apache, running PHP as a module.

If I enable verbose cURL output in PHP, all of the output is sent to the  
instance of cmd.exe (the Windows console) in which PHP’s “php-cgi.exe”  
is running. This enables me to see that nginx is indeed handling the  
request. Here is the output:

- About to connect() to ben-pc port 443 (#0)
- Trying fe80::1ddc:6806:70b6:8546…
- Connection refused
- Trying fe80::61f9:7669:a282:252d…
- Connection refused
- Trying 169.254.37.45…
- connected
- Connected to ben-pc (169.254.37.45) port 443 (#0)
- SSL connection using DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
- Server certificate:
- 

```
   [redacted]

```

- 

```
   start date: 2013-07-05 18:17:36 GMT

```

- 

```
   expire date: 2014-07-05 18:17:36 GMT

```

- 

```
   [redacted]

```

- 

```
   SSL certificate verify result: self signed certificate (18),

```

continuing  
anyway.

- Server auth using Basic with user ‘me’

> POST /myproject/trunk/public/jsapi/api-router/ HTTP/1.1  
> Authorization: Basic [redacted]  
> Host: ben-pc  
> Accept: _/_  
> Content-Length: 85  
> Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

- upload completely sent off: 85 out of 85 bytes  
\< HTTP/1.1 504 Gateway Time-out  
\< Server: nginx/1.5.2  
\< Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 22:28:06 GMT  
\< Content-Type: text/html  
\< Content-Length: 182  
\< Connection: keep-alive  
\<
- Connection #0 to host ben-pc left intact
- Closing connection #0

If I disable verbose cURL output (using curl\_setopt($ch,  
CURLOPT\_VERBOSE, 1)😉 no output is sent to the console, and the same  
timeout and 504 response occurs.

My setup is essentially the same as that described at  
[PHP-FastCGI on Windows | NGINX](http://wiki.nginx.org/PHPFastCGIOnWindows) .

Is there a simple solution to this? I’m surprised by the dearth of  
search results for “nginx php-cgi curl 504”, given that my stack  
configuration is relatively untouched.

I should mention that all other PHP behavior seems normal; the server is  
definitely “functional” in every other way.

I am happy to post details of my nginx installation, PHP configuration,  
script source code, etc. if any of it would be helpful.

Thanks for any pointers,

-Ben