xdebug: waiting for connection with ide key:15884

My php.ini settings for xdebug are:

xdebug.default_enable=1
xdebug.remote_enable = 1
xdebug.remote_handler = "dbgp"
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port = 9000
xdebug.profiler_output_dir="D:\Programming\Profiling"
xdebug.profiler_enable=1
xdebug.profiler_enable_trigger=1
xdebug.remote_autostart=1
xdebug.remote_log="D:\Programming\Profiling"
xdebug.remote_mode=req
zend_extension = "C:\xampp\php\ext\php_xdebug-2.4.0rc3-5.6-vc11.dll"

The debugger console shows: waiting for connection with ide key "15884"

 I am also unable to receive incoming connections from the xdebug chrome extension.

I need help to rectify this. Thank you.