Firefox has stopped working

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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:40 pm

I'm having to use my laptop for a few days while my desktop has a short holiday and a spot of R & R.
On Friday last, I managed to get it online without losing my temper/breaking any plates etc which was an achievement in itself.
Firefox was duly installed and everything was peachy.

Now, however, it displays the: "unable to connect" message. (This happened last night so has been going on for 24+ hours)

I have checked my firewall settings and it is allowing Mozilla.
I have removed and re-installed it
I have cleared the cache

It still won't open.

I am now at my wits end and having to use IE Shocked

Does anyone have any (other) suggestions?

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Sorry mate, no idea, but rather than use IE, why not download the Opera browser, I find it quicker and less clucnky than Firefox, I don't use FireFox at all now.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:51 pm

Doesn�t it open at all, or is it not finding any websites? Did you check the network setting in FF? Maybe you accidentaly put a proxy in the network settings?

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:08 pm

Sorry, I should been clearer earlier Embarassed

It opens but is not finding the network servers of whatever page I look for
Setting as : "Direct connection to the internet"

Opera sounds a good alternative (anything's better than IE!)

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:22 pm

If it is a clean install, why not just remove it and reinstall? Free down load. Since you don't have book marks and such to lose not lost by doing this.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:26 pm

^^^^
Ahead of you and already done..

Interestingly enough Opera doesn't connect either

It has to be a setting somewhere on this comp, but I'm damned if I can work out what I did wrong...

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:27 pm

well there goes my one and only idea.... sorry mate.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:34 pm

Sounds like a hardware problem. Try jiggling any usb, ethernet cards you are using for your connection a bit. If you're using built in usb connectors on the case, trace the internal wiring back to the mother board and do the same.

You never know.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:42 pm

Do you have two firewalls, eg the built in windows one and zone alarm or (god forbid) norton ?

Try disabling any firewalls and see if you can connect like that.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:44 pm

Did you remove the FF profile from C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ after deinstalling FF? Cause if not, then you might have reimported your profile after a reinstall.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:23 pm

eamonn wrote:

Do you have two firewalls, eg the built in windows one and zone alarm or (god forbid) norton ?

Try disabling any firewalls and see if you can connect like that.

stupid question #21c
Norton's bad is it? Confused

BC
Checked the FF profile - it was all removed

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:27 pm

Try giving the computer two aspirin and calling the internet in the morning. Wink

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:30 pm

^^^^^^
Already did that - there were even these two narrow slots on the side of the comp - the aspirins fitted in there perfectly with a little squirt of water

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:12 pm

Quote:

Norton's bad is it?

yup....i would say Norton is crap, but still better than no firewall at all Wink

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:27 pm

breadcrumb wrote:

.....than no firewall at all Wink

Ah. That'll be the microsoft firewall you're referring to there? Laughing

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:48 am

I had a similar problem - firefox downloaded an update and then it would not open - I couldn't get on and connect.

I got so mad and tried everything - then I restarted my whole computer - and it worked again - I tried for hours before I thought to do that - LOL

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:22 am

Go to the Preferences and the Advanced tab. Click on Network and is it set to "Direct Connection to the internet".?

One tip, always reboot after any change to windoz. Even if it says you don't need to or doesn't ask you to. Just another nice feature.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:11 am

@DrWho...I think he already did that...

llamedos wrote:

Setting as : "Direct connection to the internet"

llamedos, I'm no computer guru, so the only thing I can think of is this...

In the FireFox browser, go to Tools>Options>Main. At the bottom of that dialog box, "Always check to see if FireFox is the default browser at startup"
Make sure that box is checked.
Don't know if that helps, but let us know.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:34 am

Opps. That is what I get for skipping ahead.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

try this. Open IE and click on tools > internet options
then click on the connections tab > LAN settings...

Make sure the "automatically detect" setting is checked...
Now make sure there is no proxy server address in the proxy box, and that the use proxy server is not checked, and that the bypass local addresses is not checked.

Sometimes firefox isnt actually to blame it will take the settings from IE, so its important to check IE is working properly, ie might well connect but still be causing firefox a headache.

----

If you can't get any website to load immediately after updating your browser, it is almost certainly your firewall or other security software blocking the connection. - You already checked your firewall so based on that it could well be IE has something to do with it.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:04 pm

I had a similar problem with FF.

If the Broadband router was off when the PC was booting up FF failed to connect once the router was on. A restart of the OS(vista) fixed that, so I guess that isn't your problem.

Not being much help am I? Sorry.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:17 pm

We have two desktops and a laptop. When we return from a multi-day absence and boot the HP/XP desktop after booting BellSouth's combo modem/wireless DSL router and allowing it to sync, the only browser that works is Slimbrowser. FF and IE7 come up, but can't access a site. I struggled, and finally resolved the problem by disabling BOTH Zonealarm and Avast, then re-enabling them. This fix has worked twice so far. Jiggling the settings on Zonealarm doesn't fix it. Disabling the firewall alone doesn't fix it. I'm sure there's a root cause somewhere, but so far I've been too lazy to search for it.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:20 pm

Thanks for all your help and advice guys!
Unfortunately none of the suggestions actually worked(!), so I reinstalled Norton and now (for the time being at least) FF is back up and running.

Just as well; IE was driving me nuts Rolling Eyes

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:18 am

First get rid of Norton. Or McAfee for that matter. I find that their safe surfing layer usually causes more problems than they solve.

Next download the free AVG client:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

Then get the free zone alarm client:

http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm-Firewall-Windows-2000-XP-/3000-10435_4-10698360.html?tag=lst-4

After that get the Anti-spyware app of your choice and your all set. If you need to test out the firewall settings just RT-click on the Z and shut off ZA. I've had to do that and reinstall it a few times over the years.

A good quick network test involves opening up the DOS prompt and running two commands:

ipconfig /all

ping www.yahoo.com

The first command will tell you if you are conected to a router and the second command will let you know if you are connected to the internet.

Let me know if you want more clarification on those commands.

PS I run FF and really like the way I can customize it with all of the Add-ons. On the other hand I use opera on my PDA and think it's a pretty cool light weight browser.

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:06 am

I had a similar problem when Zone alarm crashed on an install. It has taken control of the security layer and believe me no piece of software can unset it. I have tried everything done to dos booting and trying to delete the registry entries. However I did discover that if I start zone alarm I will get an error saying zone alarm can't start yada yada. If I accept the message all browsers are fine. If I don't accept or cancel the message no browser will work
It seems by accepting the fault zone alarm unhooks from the web security.
My short term work around was to drop ZA into the startup and accept it until I had time to do a re install.

I don't trust Zone Alarm any more. I was quite happy until that particular upgrade.
BTW that was six months ago and I still have not been in the situation to totally whack that machine. Looks like I have something to do Christmas day Smile

Also when I had this problem mail servers still connected ok so test your email while the browsers are down. I gather you are connecting through IE so that may dismiss my experience.

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