Firefox connects to activate.adobe.com

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
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verbat1m
Posts: 1
Joined: February 10th, 2010, 4:04 pm

Firefox connects to activate.adobe.com

Post by verbat1m »

I just found out something odd about firefox and would like to see if someone can explain why it connects to activate.adobe.com.

How it all started...

I just had an crash with firefox and thought, oh well just start it again.
Then I see by the looks of the cursor windows is doing something, but firefox won't start.
I checked the task manager > processes list and it started but no new taskbar icon and the memory was very low like 3-4MB.
I killed it and tried to start in safe mode with the -safe-mode tag, it results in the same thing, it starts the process and it stalls.
Same for the -profilemanager tag.

I then got the latest version of firefox and installed it over the old on.
Which apparently did nothing since I still got the same results, it won't start.

I uninstalled en reinstalled which also didnt help and moved my old profile over so it would create a new one which still did not allow firefox to start.

I then renamed firefox.exe to firefox2.exe and it started all fine.

I know I have firefox.exe proxified via a program called Proxifier (http://www.proxifier.com/).
I saw in proxifier that firefox was trying to connect to 127.0.0.1 at some random ports.
Which I thought was strange, then I loaded up Process Explorer (http://www.sysinternals.com) and checked the TCP/IP part of the firefox and saw it was was trying to connect to activate.adobe.com.
Which I have in my HOSTS file for some reason...
127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com


Hence proxifier was connecting to my localhost and thus stalled firefox.
But why does it have to connect to activate.adobe.com in the first place?
If it's because of a plugin from adobe, shouldn't it be disabled when I run the firefox safe mode.

I've been using proxifier + my current HOSTS file for a long time why is this the first time I'm having troubles with it.
I know firefox was bugging me with a new update but I'm pretty sure I said "Not now".

If someone can enlight, please do, thanks!

Regards,
v
Running Windows 7 with Firefox 3.6.7
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Omega X
Posts: 8225
Joined: October 18th, 2007, 2:38 pm
Location: A Parallel Dimension...

Re: Firefox connects to activate.adobe.com

Post by Omega X »

Firefox showing that entry connecting to 127.0.0.1 depends on which entry you have first on the HOSTS list. Put something above that line and it will display that HOSTS entry instead. activate.adobe.com is one of Adobe's DRM listening domains.

Firefox not starting might be an Addon or Profile corruption. Have you tried Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

Also see this:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up
Alan Baxter
Posts: 4419
Joined: May 30th, 2005, 2:01 pm
Location: Colorado, USA

Re: Firefox connects to activate.adobe.com

Post by Alan Baxter »

verbat1m wrote:If it's because of a plugin from adobe, shouldn't it be disabled when I run the firefox safe mode.

Plugins aren't disabled in Firefox safe mode, just extensions and themes.
Refried
Posts: 3
Joined: March 30th, 2015, 5:41 pm

Re: Firefox connects to activate.adobe.com

Post by Refried »

I didn't want to dig this out, but I noticed it while fixing a persons hosts file. So maybe it will be useful to someone searching in the future.

The hosts file is read alphabetically. So, anything you read network traffic with, which resolves the host name (i.e. processhacker/processexplorer), it's going to show you a domain you have pointing to your localhost (127.0.0.1, etc) which is the first in the alphabet tree, regardless. So, if you put:

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1 a.domain.blocked.in.hosts.file
In your hosts file, that name will come up first, unless you have a domain pointing to your localhost with an ascii character (-) first.

To reiterate: if any domain points to your localhost ip in your hosts file, the domain in your host file that will be shown in any resolver will be the one which is at the top of the alphabet. That's why you get activate.adobe.com even though that probably isn't what it's trying to connect to. If you don't want to see the domain name, don't resolve the ips and you'll get 127.0.0.1, etc.
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DanRaisch
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Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Firefox connects to activate.adobe.com

Post by DanRaisch »

Locking this thread to make it "read only." Note that there has been no activity on this topic for 8 years.
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