FireFox connects to... when loaded

[GaryDev]

When I first start FF, my router logs shows it connecting to the following sites, listed in order of connection:

self-repair.mozilla.org
ocsp.digicert.com
safebrowsing.google.com
clients1.google.com
safebrowsing-cache.google.com
shavar.services.mozilla.com

I do not subscribe to any repair, upgrade or health reports. And I am not a fond fan of anything "google" related. In one aspect, I feel like I am being tracked, especially by going to 3 google sites. It also seems that if FF has been "running" for a period of time (even just sitting on a blank page), it appears to "refresh" those connections to the google sites.

If someone could please explain the *need* for these, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[malliz]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ho ... onnections

[Drumbrake]

self-repair.mozilla.org ---> useless, blank it in about:config
ocsp.digicert.com --> certificate checking, can be disabled but not recommended
safebrowsing.google.com --> can be disabled too, your choice
clients1.google.com ---> no idea, maybe related to certificate checking
safebrowsing-cache.google.com -->see safebrowsing.google.com
shavar.services.mozilla.com --> phishing protection somehow related to safebrowsing, can be disabled, again your choice.

There's even more background services that may pop up, have a look in about:config and then check on Mozilla wiki pages what's what. Or google them.

I do not subscribe to any repair, upgrade or health reports. And I am not a fond fan of anything "google" related. In one aspect, I feel like I am being tracked, especially by going to 3 google sites

You are indeed. Nothing left to do but learning how to limit the extent of that and maybe install some privacy-enhancing addons (NoScript, Adblock, Ublock Origin, Policeman, RequestPolicy to name a few).

[GaryDev]

Thanks for the tips. I am a bit ashamed, for I often answer questions like these by using a search engine, and I don't know why I didn't...

I used the link by malliz, and found the information there a bit "daunting" but I went through each item in that post and did disable the google items. I also checked all of the addons and disabled the automatic checks (although none of those items were causing any traffic). I eventually got it down to just the self repair and the shavar still going out. Today I found the self repair part and nuked that (sorry Mozilla) and while I did use the menu options to disable the phishing and malware sides of things, those connections were still going out... so I found those in config (2 entries) and blanked them.

Along the way in my searching on those, I also found a note about how FF prefetches sites when you mouse over links or images. A most annoying feature, but... I get it. Anything to make stuff a little faster but... Our website only has 3 external type links (forums, a game download, and our teamspeak server) and I'm going "what the hell" as I moused over those images and saw the traffic. I can just imagine the insanity of a webpage with hundreds of links (especially those to advertising crap).

Prefetch makes an actual connection to the linked website and who knows what data is being sent (if any).. I'm fortunate, in that I have an active real time display from my router, showing all forms of incoming and outgoing traffic, including entries from various IP's that connections have been refused from.

I am quite anal about my system security, been at this for over 30 years... and I realize that some of what I have disabled could open me up to possible spyware and malware etc. But I have other programs (anti-virus with active monitoring, and malware antibytes, combined with PeerBlock) that have kept me quite safe.

For those interested... Microsoft started some rather active spying with Windows 7 was released. People think that Win10 is an issue, but it started a long time ago. For instance, at boot time Win7 will go out to 2 different IP's and store them in a similar fashion to DNS entries, except some of those IP's will eventually point to a group of a different set of 2, in order to mask their traffic. All port 80 stuff. On top of that, IE will also hit a specific IP on port 443 at random intervals, and gawd knows what it's sending. ... All of these ARE IP's related to various MS servers, and I filed a complaint with MS Privacy. I spent 2 months dealing with some twit in support, who denied it was from Microsoft, and closed the file.

They hate being caught, and do nothing but deny and ignore you. My router logs and port captures prove otherwise.

Just sayin.

[Drumbrake]

You can disable prefetching too, and while you are there, take care of this network.predictor* too...

Have a look here https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fingerprinting, you may find it interesting.

[GaryDev]

Interesting... thanks

[Redplanetz]

LOL you should all have a look at my pastebin i put together in the last 7 weeks shows all the options to disable most features

[malliz]

Lets see....am I going to download an unknown file from an unknown source to fix a perceived security problem

[GaryDev]

*grin... I dont think pastebin holds anything but text... although it could have links that might be dangerous. With that said, there are several options that are enabled by default, which from a security aspect AND from a tracking aspect, kind of defeats all of what FireFox is all about.