Laravel RESTful Routes: Multiple apps with one backend 404 - rest

Question

I am somewhat new to Laravel, and recently I got a setup at work to function exactly as I wanted. I have a single installation of Laravel with a subdirectory of apps that all use that same backend as a RESTful master.
The issue I'm having is that when I'm home, I've cloned this repo and changed the db settings to match my localhost at home (instead of at work). However, each time I try to load a rout for a resource I get 404'd!
Here's some code.
app/routes.php:
Route::get('/', function()
{
return 'fgh';
});
Route::any('config', function() {
return 'GET config';
});
//Main Rest Controller
Route::resource('main', 'MainController');
// Route::resource('config', 'ConfigController');
Route::resource('data', 'DataController');
The folder structure is:
|-- appREST (where Laravel is)
|-- shared
|-- apps (where the apps are)
What I am trying to do (which I do at work) is simply make an AJAX call from an app in the apps/ directory, but to a relative path that is adjusted for where appREST is.
At work, I AJAX to '../../../appREST/public/config', or ../public/main or whatever. However, for some reason, this fails at home. The same tables exist in both databases at work, and both are up and functioning (no one else has issues on either). It seems almost as if some local Apache or other setting on just my machine is failing?
I can load the first route for REST (Route::get('/')) in the browser, and 'fgh' IS displayed. However, even after changing to GET config and a string any call either AJAX or browser to any route but '/' 404s.
Also, as a note, in the meantime the applications themselves work fine. If I load static/hard data instead of what I'm trying to load, there are zero problems. This appears to be isolated to my routing in Laravel/Apache.
EDIT
I forgot to include the HTACCESS file for the /appREST/public folder. Here it is:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>
RewriteEngine On
# Redirect Trailing Slashes...
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
# Handle Front Controller...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>
NOTE
The setup is a git repo and I actually have this on two separate machines. On the original machine, where the repo starrted as a working directory, the above code works fine. It is only on my home, clonedTo machine that the routes fail.
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Thank you!

Answer 1

The only way I eventually fixed this was a clean reinstall of both XAMPP and Laravel.
Given that I could find the '/' route and the errors were 404s, I'm going to tentatively call this an Apache error.
So, for anyone else having this issue: I suggest you check your XAMPP/web server settings if your Laravel routes 404!