I too am getting the above error message with FA v 2.3.20, but that is when I try to download additional Chart of Accounts, Modules/Extensions etc from the central repository. Everything else is working, and under system diagnostics, all things seem to be in order.
I am running WAMP 2.5 with Apache 2.4.9, MySQL 5.6.17 and php 5.5.12 on Windows 7 (64 bit).
Thank you for your help in advance.