"Page Load Error" says Firefox

[King Arthur]

Well met people of MozillaZine,

The problem I'm having has started happening only recently. The basic outlook is that, after running Firefox for a long while (several days to several weeks) the browser denies me access to random websites with the following error message:

Connection Interrupted
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again.

Contrary to what you may think, my internet connection is fine as both IE7 and Opera, as well as cmd.exe's PING function can access the internet without problems. If there's a chance this keeps up with other websites which I may actually need I will be forced to look for more reliable alternatives.

As it stands, the problem resolves itself if I reboot Firefox. However, rebooting Firefox everytime this happens, even with a session saver, is a hassle I'd rather not take altogether. If there's a chance this keeps up with other websites which I may actually need I will be forced to look for more reliable alternatives. Last thing I need is Firefox deciding to deny my viewing rights while doing something mission-critical.

Installed extensions are:
NoScript 1.7.8
Rikaichan 1.04
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.6.1.080416

Website(s) affected as of writing are:
http://www.kongregate.com/ (denied 2 times now)

Firefox version is 3.0.1
OS is Windows XP Professional, SP3.
Machine specs are a Pentium 4 2.66GHz with 512MB of RAM, with an Nvidia GeForce 6200 PCI.
Internet connection is a DSL line.
No firewalls are installed, and Windows Firewall is disabled. So chances of a firewall interfering with Firefox is slim to none.

Firefox's RAM usage as of writing is 122MB, virtual RAM usage as of writing is 210MB.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could inform me of a way to resolve this, or if this was a known bug in Firefox or one of the extensions I have.

Thank you,
King Arthur

[Roy66uk]

You need to troubleshoot this issue by running Firefox in its own 'Safe Mode' (with all add ons disabled):
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_any_website

I didn't fully understand the part "after running Firefox for a long while (several days to several weeks)" - that could just mean after using it (but still shutting it and your system down periodically) during that timespan, or continuously active use. If it's the latter then unless you are doing the same with IE and Opera any comparison is not valid. Plus I would expect random connection errors in that latter scenario anyway - even on a fibre-optic cable connection that will happen.
Viz no Firewall. I don't really see that being an issue since a FW will block a program or not block it. It is never intermittent in my experience but what I do know is running any windows box without a FW is something I'd never do - especially on a dsl connection. But it's your system.

[DanRaisch]

See if anything here is helpful -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites

[King Arthur]

In your question to what I meant, Roy, I meant that it happens randomly while I'm using Firefox. However it only happens only after I've had Firefox running continously. My example of IE7/Opera was just to show my internet connection wasn't the problem, rather it was Firefox itself loading a specific location. When this problem occurs, a website (Kongregate in this case) fails to load until I reboot the browser (almost as if Firefox isn't even trying to connect, the error is immediate from refreshing/hitting Go). Any other website, such as Google, will open just fine.

I will try running in Safe Mode should this happen again, but the randomness of this problem over a long timespan makes it hard to pinpoint exactly what extension might be the problem, assuming one is.

[Dinkybear]

King Arthur- how was this problem resolved? I installed Firefox on my mother in law's computer- it worked fine for about a week, and now comes up with that same error message you had every time she tries to log on to firefox. She cannot use Google, Facebook, Mapquest, or many other website that she shouldn't have problems with. I am NOT a computer genious- what did you do to fix the problem?

[DanRaisch]

Dinkybear, did you review the links posted in the replies above?

[kunalashar]

I have a similar problem. FF, and only FF, randomly throws up the "Page load error" with the "Address not found" message in it. This happens for pretty much any site (including Mozillazine! Go figure!), and at any time, though the frequency is about 70% of the time, for any page.
A reload often loads the page immediately after that, though the frequency of a second "Page load error", after the reload is about 10% of the time.

- FF in Safe Mode has the same problem.
- A reinstall has not helped at all. Neither has the creation of a new profile.
- I've tried all the workarounds suggested in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites, but to no avail.
-The problem is not seen with IE 7 or with Google Chrome.
- I have a 2Mbps broadband connection, so my network is not to blame.
- I've run AdAware and SpyBot S&D too, and they turned up nothing

Please help!
I'm rapidly losing confidence in FF, and I'm considering switching to IE or GC.
TIA.

FF 3.0.5, Safe Mode
Vista Home Premium SP1
Symantec Norton AV
Windows Defender.
2Mbps broadband

[DanRaisch]

Have you tried a new profile with no extensions or themes added? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows --

[kunalashar]

Yes, I did.
The gist of it is that a brand new profile with no add-ons or themes works fine. The installation of *any* add-on or theme immediately throws up the problem.

The details are posted here: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_fo ... &forumId=1

[kunalashar]

The results are startling...

Frequency of "Page load error"/"Address not found" errors with each installation:
FF 3.0.5: 60%
FF 3.0.4: 50%
FF 3.0.5: 60% (yes, back to 3.0.5 to make sure that there wasn't some anomaly - sure enough, the high frequency reappeared)
FF 3.0.3: 20%
FF 3.0.5: 60% (The high frequency reappeared)
FF 3.0.2: 20%
FF 3.0.5: 60% (The high frequency reappeared)
FF 3.0.1: 20%
FF 3.0: 10%
FF 2.x: 0% (notice how FF 2.x didn't have this problem?)

Each installation (except 2.x used the same set of add-ons). For 2.x, I used a slightly different, but compatible set of add-ons. Also, in each case, the errors vanished with a new profile that had no add-ons installed.

[DanRaisch]

Then the problem is with the add-ons, isn't it? Add only one extension at a time, testing Firefox in between additions. When you see the problem reappear you will know that the extension installed immediately before that is the problem source.

[kunalashar]

Thanks DanRaisch. The problem is that the installation of any add-on, any extension, shows the problem. It's not a specific add-on or extension. In my post at http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_fo ... &forumId=1, I mentioned that as long as my FF profile was "virginal" (no add-ons installed), FF chugged along merrily with no errors. But the moment I installed any add-on, boom!

[kunalashar]

Based on suggestions at another post/forum, I tried OpenDNS's servers instead of my defaults, and the following results were immediately obvious:
1. No more "Page not found" errors
2. FF seems back to it's blazingly fast speed ("ludicrous speed" to borrow a phrase from Spaceballs, the movie).
3. When I switched back to my default DNS servers, the problem returned.

It seems that FF did have a problem with a flaky DNS server.

I've made the change on my network, and my developers can happily get back to work (or surfing!). The ball's now in the FF dev team's court to figure out why FF misbehaves when confronted with a flaky DNS server.

[a;skdjfajf;ak]

We are NOT Mozilla developers here, only volunteer support. If you think you have found a legit issue with DNS and Firefox I encourage you to file a detailed report at bugzilla.mozilla.org

I would rather blame your service provider, as there must be 100's of DNS servers around and your not going to hit the same one all the time, at least I would think not... so based on that, its very likely NOT a Firefox issue.

[kunalashar]

"Littlemutt", I would've thought that FF didn't have an issue, except for the fact that IE, Google Chrome and Safari were all able to handle the flaky DNS server without throwing up the Page load error"/"Address not found" error.

I exclusively used IE for the past 24 hours, and not once did it give me the "Page load error"; in contrast, FF displayed that error 60% of the time.

I'd like to file a report bugzilla.mozilla.org, though I'm not sure how much sense the behavior makes or whether I have all the data needed to put together a coherent bug report ("IE works but FF doesn't"... yikes, I can almost see the flame mail).