Firefox cannot find websites??

[Luther]

Periodically and erratically FF says it cannot find various websites and pops up a window about firewalls etc. The sites can be small or huge, e.g. google. It seems that this happens whne I have had Thunderbird open although this too is erratic. Using a treaceroute program I can get to the sites so it does not seem to be anything on my machine or my isp's dns server. Usually after I use the traceroute prorgam or ping a site, then I can browse again and definitally after I restart the computer. Tbird also sometimes tells me that it cannot locate my pop server. I am using FF 1.5.0.1, Tbird 1.5 (20051201), running W2K SP4 with current critical patches, with 1 gig DDR ram, XP2500 cpu.

Any suggestions where I should look??
Thanks

p.s. it just happened when I tried to post this question!

[VanillaMozilla]

It's an ISP and Windows problem. Windows is caching unsuccessful DNS lookup attempts and is not making any attempt to look again until the cache entry expires. You're using tracert after the entry expires and everything is working again. At least that's what I think is probably happening. Look here
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 21#1552721
and here http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;318803 .

[Anxious]

It's an ISP and Windows problem. Windows is caching unsuccessful DNS lookup attempts and is not making any attempt to look again until the cache entry expires. You're using tracert after the entry expires and everything is working again. At least that's what I think is probably happening. Look here
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 21#1552721
and here http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;318803 .

I am also getting an error message. In my case it is when I try to log into a secure website. I had been able to get in, but when I tried to use the web site, it did not function properly. Now the page won't load at all.

Here is the message I get:

"The page isn't redirecting properly
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
cookies."
I checked and my Firefox is set to accept cookies.

Can Anyone help me?
Aid needs aid

[VanillaMozilla]

This is an odd one, but I found quite a few threads by searching for "redirecting will never complete".

In some cases it seems to be an error in the site that some other browsers ignore. Look at
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 46#1877846
and maybe http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... g+complete . (No, I don't understand this.)

Check again and make sure you don't have cookies restricted somehow.

If you don't get anywhere, I suggest that you start a new thread or attach your message to one about redirection. This is an unusual problem that's not related to Luther's. A good title would be "Page isn't redirecting properly" (with quotes).

Edit: Look here: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 87#2043387 . It appears that Fx may be blocking the redirection because it's a possible security issue. <i>Please let us know what you find out so others may benefit. This problem is not widely known.</i>

[Luther]

Thanks for the suggestion Vanilla. I doubt my ISP is the problem since I can do an immediate trace and all is fine -- after I do that FF works again. I have been waiting for it to act up today to try flushing the dns cache to see if that fixes the problem. But , of course, the problem has not occurred. If after a flush FF still does not work, then the culprit would be my ISP. Repeated retry clicks in FF when I have this problem do not seem to solve it but then again I do not know what the default setting is for the cache. When I am able to check this out, I will post the results.......but FF is being shy right now.

[Guest]

There's
ipconfig /displaydns
and
ipconfig /flushdns . The first gives you info.

[Luther]

Well FF finally decided not to be shy and repeated the cannot find server problem. Flushing the DNS cache instantly cured the problem. This has convinced me that this problem originates in Windows and not FF.

[VanillaMozilla]

Glad you got it fixed. The problem is that if the DNS lookup fails once, the problem will persist because Windows, in its pin-headed wisdom, cached the failed attempt.

"ipconfig /displaydns" should allow you to catch it in the act of caching useless results and see what's going on, and "ipconfig /flushdns" fixes it (temporarily). The links I gave in my first message should help if the problem persists.