Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

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polo_step
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Joined: June 26th, 2005, 1:04 pm

Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by polo_step »

On my Windows 7 laptop, regularly-updated Firefox has started losing its ability to access Internet URLs after about three or four previous lookups and will not access any more sites until I reboot the computer. Then, it will look up three or four sites before losing its ability to do so again. It appears that IE has the same problem.

I did a deep, full scan with updated Comodo and Malwarebytes and they both come up clean.

The laptop seems to be working 100% fine otherwise.

What can be causing this? I have never heard of this symptom before. It "smells" like some kind of malware, but the programs to detect such say no.

Many thanks for any assistance. I need my laptop to work on the Internet!
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DanRaisch
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by DanRaisch »

Clear the browser cache (use menu path Tools->Options->Advanced->Network tab->click on "Clear Now" button.)
Delete any cookies relating to the site(s) involved (Tools->Options->Privacy->Firefox will "Use custom settings for History"->Show Cookies button).

If no improvement aft er the above, do you have the same problem if you create a new profile and test it with no extensions or non-default themes installed?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows
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Reflective
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by Reflective »

Sounds to me more like a system problem if it happens with IE as well.

Try doing the following to check for corruption.
  • 1. Launch the startup menu and then in the Search box type: CMD and hit Enter.
    2. Right click "Command Prompt" when it appears and click Run As Administrator.
    3. Type: sfc /scannow and hit Enter.
System File Checker will check Windows system files for corruption and try to repair any found.

In the event SFC can't repair the corruption download the System Readiness Update tool from here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... iness-tool
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DanRaisch
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by DanRaisch »

Sounds to me more like a system problem if it happens with IE as well.
Oops. I missed that. Thanks for bringing that point forward, Reflective.
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LIMPET235
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by LIMPET235 »

Moving to the Tech. forum...
[Ancient Amateur Astronomer.]
Win-10-H/64 bit/500G SSD/16 Gig Ram/450Watt PSU/350WattUPS/Firefox-115.0.2/T-bird-115.3.2./SnagIt-v10.0.1/MWP-7.12.125.

(Always choose the "Custom" Install.)
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makaiguy
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by makaiguy »

Do you get any sort of error message when it fails to connect to an URL? If so, what does it say?
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 115.0.02 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 115.2.0/115.0.1 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
polo_step
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Joined: June 26th, 2005, 1:04 pm

Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by polo_step »

No error messages, it just takes longer and longer and longer to access URLs until it just reaches a point that they all just time out until I reboot. Then the whole process starts again.

Strange, huh?

I flushed the DNS thinking this could possibly be that, but no improvement. Will try the other suggestions later.
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Reflective
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by Reflective »

You can also check whether the site you're trying to reach is actually online or not using this tool: http://www.justdownforme.com/
polo_step
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Joined: June 26th, 2005, 1:04 pm

Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by polo_step »

I got on this some more today.

No error messages. Running sfc /scannow shows "no violations" in the system files.

I have ~375G unused space on the HD.

Cleaned up the registry with CCleaner. No change.

The problem is not relative to the site. After it reaches its point of non-responsiveness, I can go to Google, AT&T, Facebook, anywhere and the site will still time out.

Reboot and everything works fine for a while...then the site load times gradually increase up to the point of unresponsiveness.

This is really stumping me!
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Grumpus
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by Grumpus »

Have you proposed the issue to your Internet service provider?
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
polo_step
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by polo_step »

Grumpus wrote:Have you proposed the issue to your Internet service provider?
The problem is only on one machine of several which otherwise work fine, so this is unlikely (though not impossible, I imagine) to be an ISP problem.

Of course, my ISP is AT&T and approaching them about anything always turns into a Class-A nightmare. After screwing up my system by incompetently monkeying around in the main box down the street, it took them thirteen (13) days to get my phone and Internet back up a couple of weeks ago. This problem predates that by a month or two.

I suppose it's conceivable that they may have heard of such a problem and found an answer to it, even if it (incredibly) wasn't actually their fault, but it will take a lot of digging to find it. I just looked at their bloated and impenetrable forums and saw no tech help section containing actual tech help. That's AT&T all over! [sigh...]

It belatedly occurs to me that this could conceivably be a hardware problem and I have a couple of USB WiFi dongles that were experimentally set up on that machine the chucked into a drawer. If they fix/don't-fix this problem, that would at least be a step ahead.

I'll experiment!
polo_step
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Joined: June 26th, 2005, 1:04 pm

Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by polo_step »

Well, it turns out that even with using a different wifi device and connection, the problem remains.

Any thoughts?
kreemoweet
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Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by kreemoweet »

So what else is going on in the affected computer? Maybe some program is going haywire and eating up all the available bandwidth, or all the CPU cycles, or some such. Your built-in Resource Monitor, or maybe even the Task Manager should provide some information.
polo_step
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Joined: June 26th, 2005, 1:04 pm

Re: Firefox Loses Ability to Access URLs

Post by polo_step »

This is really horrible. At this point, I've rolled back to several much earlier restore points, etc., etc. I've checked for corrupted system files, removed numerous programs, nothing changes. There's nothing going on that indicates a problem elsewhere in the system. I'm sure I've watched the resource monitor prior to this, but I'll try again.

This is really a strange problem. I've never heard anything like it before. It seems odd that going to restore points prior to the arrival of the trouble do not cure it! :-k
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