why excessive transfers when I go online with Firefox?

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

why excessive transfers when I go online with Firefox?

Post by frew »

Hello,

I have a problem that's been occurring for the last few months where when I connect (dialup) Firefox loads about 1MB of transfers every time I connect.
It's not cookies related, and not a RSS feeds thing (that's all disabled), and my homepage is aonly google advanced search.
I did all this stuff
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Connections_e ... _-_Firefox
except for the disable loopback stuff, which I do not know how to do.
I do all current antivirus and spyware maintenance.
I can see stuff loading by seeing zonealarm tray icon being active, and little internet connection thing shows the bytes being received.
I'm running Win98SE, and FF 2.0.0.1

Very strangely I notice in FF status bar that as stuff loads I often see
"transferring data from load.exelator.com"
or
"transferring data from freshcontent.com"

What could be going on I wonder?

I know it's nothing changed with my isp either because if I use opera to test this I get no extra loading, just connect and go...whereas with FF now I'm having to connect, wait 5 minutes for stuff to tranfer, then finally I can begin to browse.

Perhaps I could sdjust some settings in FF about:config?

Thank you very much for any ideas for me to try.

frew
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Post by VanillaMozilla »

Change your default browser to Opera and see if it happens with Opera instead.
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

Post by frew »

Thank you for your reply.

I have tried Opera and very nicely only 3kb (yes only 3kb) of data transfers, then it's ready to go.
I set Opera as the default browser then connected.

I have a feeling that with, Firefox, often much more mystery data is getting transferred at time of connection than people realize, but since I'm still on dialup connection I can really feel the impact of having to wait 5 minutes for 1 MB of stuff to transfer before I can begin to browse.

So what could be causing Firefox to go and get this 1 MB of mystery data that Opera is not going and fetching? And how can I make it stop so I don't have to wait for so long before I can start browsing each time I connect?

Thank you very much for any other ideas about this.

frew
Old Limpet235
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Old Limpet235 »

Have you done a 'Google' for the 'offenders'?
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

Post by frew »

>Have you done a 'Google' for the 'offenders'?

Sorry, I'm not sure what that means...what are the "offenders"?
Old Limpet235
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Old Limpet235 »

The 2 'offenders' >
"transferring data from load.exelator.com"
or
"transferring data from freshcontent.com"
Last edited by Old Limpet235 on May 5th, 2007, 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Old madperson
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Old madperson »

does it work normally with a new profile?
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

Post by frew »

Google search of the so called offenders does not seem to tell me much...but thanks for the idea. I'm still not even sure if those names indicate problems. But the problem probably is that which is doing the calling of the data transfer.

Thanks for the link to new profile setup. I just did that and started with the new profile and unfortunately the same 1 MB of stuff gets transferred when I start FF. So what does that tell me?

Why does FF do this and Opera does not?

What else do you think might be a possibility?

Thank you very much for your ideas,

frew
User avatar
dickvl
Posts: 54145
Joined: July 18th, 2005, 3:25 am

Post by dickvl »

Maybe Firefox updates the phishing database.
You can try to check the connection(s) with process explorer (firefox.exe : Properties > TCP/IP).
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysint ... lorer.mspx
Anonymosity
Guest

Post by Anonymosity »

Do you have any RSS feeds set up? That might be what is doing the transfer. Check in the Options to see if there is any feed subscription set up.
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

Post by frew »

I had already turned the phishing database thing to false at browser.safebrowsing.enabled

The process explorer tool looks good but I don't understand how it can help me with this yet.

I have all RSS feed stuff disabled. Nothing in Livebookmarks folder.

Any other ideas for me to try?

Thank you very much,

frew
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Post by VanillaMozilla »

www.freshcontent.net

"Tired of updating your site with fresh content?
- Save time with our free, self-updating web content
- Users will visit your web site more often
- More sites will want to link to your free newsfeeds
- No programming! - install it quickly & easily."

Could be stuff added to a Web site that you open -- like your home page??. Maybe an RSS feed. Or an extension that you have? Some toolbars will do stuff that you don't really want.

Just make some changes and it will probably disappear -- unless it's a separate <i>program</i> that got installed on your computer. Worst case: try a new profile, as madperson suggested. THAT will make reset virtually everything in Firefox.
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

Post by frew »

Thanks for the info.

As mentioned I did a new profile to reset all, and started in this new profile, got same results.

As mentioned google advanced search is my homepage...no "freshcontent" stuff there I believe.

No RSS stuff on google advanced search.

All the loading occurs with simple connect, then wait for google advanced search homepage.

All addons disabled and still the loading occurred.

No separate program was running as indicated in process explorer, and in spybot processes list.

No other toolbars at all running. LiveBookmarks toolbar totally empty.

Again, interestingly, new profile did not help at all.



For those interested, here's what solved the problem.

I made backup copies of all FF folders, then

I totally uninstalled FF 2.0.0.1...everything...used FF uninstaller, then deleted
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla folder, then deleted
FF folders in registry. Rebooted.

I downloaded FF 2.0.0.3, installed it with default settings, connected and got rid of LiveBookMark stuff, restated FF and very nicely only 20kb or so transferred and I was ready to go...no more waiting for the 1MB of transfers before I can begin to browse.

Like I said, many with broadband would never notice such a problem, but with dialup, it is a slowdown before browsing can start.

Now my question is what was causing the problem. Clearly it was something in my FF folders, but what?

Thanks for any other ideas on this,

frew
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Post by VanillaMozilla »

1. New profile--same result.
2. Delete registry entries and program directory: success.

That leaves only a few possibilities:
1. A plugin that was installed in the program directory. (The new profile rules out anything else in the Firefox setup.)
2. A registry entry (I know nothing more about this, so don't ask), or virus etc. that you deregistered.
3. An altered Firefox program file that you did not get from Mozilla.
4. A mistake in troubleshooting. (Sometimes people don't do what they said they did. I don't think so in this case, but I'm listing possibilities, not likely events.)


1. When you deleted C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla, that's equivalent to creating a new profile -- except that you deleted the old one. So I don't think that had anything to do with it.
frew
Posts: 45
Joined: December 23rd, 2005, 10:09 am

Post by frew »

I'm assuming that the words plugin, add-on, and extension all refer to the same thing.

Does disabling an add-on insure that the add-on can have absolutely zero influence on Firefox behavior?

I got Firefox from Mozilla main Firefox site.

The only other thing I did not mention is that just prior to today's install of FF 2.0.0.3, I did also delete all items from

C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\History
C:\WINDOWS\Cookies

But I didn't really think that any items in those folders had anything to do with Firefox behavior, or do they?

Thank you,

frew
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