I have problem with starting Apache Tomcat 6 from Netbeans IDE 7.4 (on 7.3 version I had the same troubles. Other people mentioned that this problem exist also in other vers
Also, it is very likely, that problem with proxy settings.
Any who didn't overcome Tomact starting problrem, - try in NetBeans choose No Proxy in the Tools -> Options -> General tab.
It helped me.