Problem with firefox and ES. ONLY with ES.

[oldswamm]

<edit 2>I was disgusted when I posted the original title, and hoping the problem would be more common.
<edit> This only started about the time of the takeover attempt....

I've been using Firefox since they quit the mozzilla browser.
I can access ES for a while, then any attempt results in no action, whether in the same tab or a new one, reloading a page or opening a new one.
This problem ONLY occurrs with ES. I'm now typing in IE, which I hate. I would probably be tempted to quit ES if it only works with IE.
Anyway, in firefox with ES, the red X lights up, but the status line says 'done'. Reloading firefox, temporarily cures the problem, but it soon returns. Because I have an ultra slow connection, I keep 30 or 40 tabs open to avoid having to wait the several minutes for most pages to download, but that also means that it takes 15 to 30 minutes to reload firefox.
Does anybody know a cure or workaround to use firefox with ES? If firefox can't be made to work, I would download yet another browser, but would like some assurance that it will cure the problem before I invest a day or more of my bandwidth to the experiment.
I get timeouts with all web sites, but only have to click retry. This is nothing like that. Absolutely the only thing that happens when I click 'reload' on an ES page, is the 'stop download' X turns red. NO data is transferred out of, or into my computer.

Before I start shotgunning this problem, I would sure like someone to say 'this is the problem, and this is the cure', or at least opine as to a likely cure.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Zoot Katz]

Opera has been my browser of choice since its introduction.

I just started Mozilla Firefox 5.1 to respond to your question - in a new tab even.
This version seems to work for me.

 

[oldswamm]

Thanks,
It takes a while for the problem to show up, and almost surely isn't common (I seem to be REAL good at finding bugs). I suspect it starts when I try to access ES while I already have the download maxed out, what would normally give me a timeout error.
As much as curing the problem, I would like to know WHY one web site would case this problem. (I cleaned out the cookies, as well).
I suppose I'm going to have to download something, either the latest firefox or opera. I was hoping to avoid any major upgrades till fall.

(We're supposed to get land based acess before winter. At that time we're supposedly going to have multiple ISPs to choose from again, and (I hope) the cable company will be put out of the internet access business. They (GCI) bought the telephone company, spent milions on fiber optic so the TC could be switched to GCI's satalite transiver, which raised the cost per KB by a factor of 10-100. The least we can expect to spend on internet access now is $10/GigaByte. I think their plan is to extract as much as possible before the new land based links are establised, but I think they're shooting themselves in the foot, as I expect a mass exidus as soon as people have an option again. Sorry, I get to ranting, but it irritates me that they rape us just because the state allowed them a monopoly. I didn't even get into the downtime, slowdowns, or terrible cell phone service (they now have a monopoly on ALL communications) did I?)

 

[AussieJester]

Never had a single issue with firefox and ES in the years I been here, recently started using Google chrome after a fast browser Chrome is the one to have, alot faster than Firefox loading pages.

KiM

 

[oldswamm]

Guess I need to edit my title.
Never had any problem till recently.
If it was common, I would have seen posts about it. It acts so strange that I thought someone might recognize the symptons. I expect it's the result of my poor connection, combined with not always shutting down ALL downloads when I surf. And this is NOT a problem with other web sites.
I do have to shut down everything including my email client to upload pix to ebay, but then all I get is an error message, not a lockout.

Would chrome really help my speed with my 1-4KB/s connection? I'm currious how. (The 4KB/s is only attained in the middle of the night, or when the DNS goes down.)

 

[AussieJester]

I dont think much will help with a 4kbs connection lol But yes Chrome is a far faster browser BUT I do have adsl2+ connection a tad quicker than yours, have u looked into faster internet? If cable isn't available there is always satellite net hookups albeit a lil more costly, I get frustrated at friends 1500kb adsl connections, I doubt I would even bother with internet if 4kbs was all available to me, my condolences, must be very frustrating.

KiM

 

[oldswamm]

Yea, with a fast enough cable connection I can run up a $10,000 'excess bandwidth' charge in a month. It's one reason why I refuse to do business with the cable company.

I doubt I would even bother with internet if 4kbs was all available to me, my condolences, must be very frustrating.

Hard to put into words...... I did without for a couple months after they discontinued DSL, but ended up signing up for dial up (thinking I was going to get 40kbs or more).
As is it's still a necessity in this world. I sell (ocasionally) on ebay, need email, and need access to ES. (Luke's monster pix are a problem. )
Like I said in an earlier post, we should have resonable connections by winter.
Open wifi connections tend to last about a month, till the owner discovers the $10/GB burried in the fine print. Like I said, I would think it very funny if GCI went under as a result of having their monopoly being destroyed. I've even heard rumors of another cable company coming in, not that it matters to me, I quit watching 'TV' almost 40 years ago, except for a stint repairing them, and downloads. I don't feel the need to be 'programed', even though it's sometimes dificult to communicate with people who's frame of reference is centered around TV. Most jokes go over my head, because I don't know who Opra (for example) IS.
Satalite internet is both expensive and undependable. Also quite slow. You have to realize they have the same problems as the big boys. We're a long way from the equator, with more atmosphere to penetrate because of the angle, and fewer people to pay for the transciever on the satalite (which has to be aimed at the horizon instead of down).
I can put up with not being able to download anything of size for a couple months.

 

[AussieJester]

Appologies i admit i skimmed through opening post, didnt even see you were in the densely highly populated Alaskan'ian' region HAHA

All the best getting the issue sorted and/or some decent internet connectivity...

KiM

 

[Green Machine]

Try surfing with a reasonable number of tabs open, like 5 or 6. 30 to 40 will kill any browser and although you claimed it's only ES that suffers dropouts, it will happen with any website.

 

[dingoEsride]

Try surfing with a reasonable number of tabs open, like 5 or 6. 30 to 40 will kill any browser and although you claimed it's only ES that suffers dropouts, it will happen with any website.

I agree, that is a massive amount of open tabs and must make finding the one you want hard, if you reset regularly you should have no problems with firefox, i've been using it for a while on my g4 mac and had no problems on ES, but the same goes with safari or opera and I also have a slow speed connection, 3g dongle

 

[amberwolf]

Firefox 2.0.0.12 works fine for me (can't say about higher versions), even with a couple dozen tabs open,

But it does get mighty slow, and sometimes pages are "corrupted" with text and pictures overlapping, which a refresh of the page cures (or sometimes just maximizing and then restoring the FF window). However, these problems happen with *any* PHPBB forum, especially v3.x (much less so with 2.x).

Much worse problems happen with Vbulletin forums, like DIY Electric Car, where parts of some pages don't even load if I have too many tabs open.

With certain other websites also open, like Hulu or Youtube playing something in the background, all these problems are magnified.

Most likely this is a memory issue--not necessarily running out of actual RAM, but of a memory leak in FF itself, or one of the addons I'm using, as I can watch FF's memory usage creep upward just sitting there, and actively doing stuff eventually forces it to exceed available memory, after several days to a couple of weeks of using it without closing the browser windows entirely.

My system is an Intel Core2duo (somethingsomething version from several years ago) with 3gb RAM and XP SP2, heavily customized. So in my case, any number of things could be causing the issue. I suspect CPU speed and RAM, since the problems are generally far worse on my ancient Toshiba P4 laptop which I don't think has even 1GB of RAM :lol:, also running a heavily customized version of XP SP2.


I suspect that your instance of the problems is caused by an extension or addon that updated itself around the same time. It's almost certanly not an ISP issue if IE still works. You could try disabling your addons one at a time, closing and restarting FF, then reopening tabs until it fails again, or fails to fail.

 

[oldswamm]

Thanks AW.
There is an addon that I don't know where came from. Not something I would have added either (a net bassed completion routine, like I need to look for ways to use bandwidth) (I don't think I ever saw it try and complete anything, probably because it didn't have time, he he). I don't allow automatic upgrades, or installs, so I don't know how it got there. I assume I must have clicked ok, but can't imagine it. I don't click without reading(?). No one else has had physical access to this computer in months. I'm tempted to think maybe one of the cats pressed enter at the wrong time (ok, unlikely, but they do things with the KB that I don't know how to (they apparently know shortcuts that I don't)).
Of course we still don't know if that was the problem, but likely.
Again, thanks to AmberWolf and all others who read and considered my problem.
Bob

 

[oldswamm]

As to having 30+ tabs open, I would never get anything done otherwise. In 2 to 5 windows. I just closed the window that had 12 tabs open at digikey. I have 10 or so on the All electronics window, and maybe a dozen things I hope to buy in the ebay window. I've been using lots of tabs since mozilla first used them, with no significant problems (other than eating memory of course). You have to realize that I SOMETIMES have a SLOW connection. I SAVE pages just so I don't have to download them again.

dingo, what is a 3g dongle? I would at first glance take that to mean 3gigabit? But you couldn't consider that slow, I hope?
3gb would be approximately 100,000 times what I have.
The fastest I ever had was 500kbs (advertised speed). It came with 8 gigabyte FREE.
(I've used faster when out of the bush, of course.)

These are STILL amazing speeds to someone who started in the mid 70s. My first working computer (an IMSAI 8080 clone) started with 2k of ram (eventually expanded to 40k 8) ) and 2k of rom. It was actually very closely comparable to a PIC16C84 in terms of speed, mem, and I/O (over 1000 times the energy though). I had a fast Tarbel(sp) tape interface that ran at 1200 to 9600 baud+ (with a good tape deck), when everybody else was running 300. I saw 8" floppy drives in the magazines, and wished I had $1500 for an 80kB drive and controller. Or 5000+ for a 5MB 'Winchester' drive.
I still have the magazines from Kilobytes transition to microcomputing. It got to where a KB just wasn't that much. They went from KILOBYTE, to KILOBYTE microcomputing, to kilobyte MICROCOMPUTING, to MICROCOMPUTING, in about a year.

 

[dingoEsride]

dingo, what is a 3g dongle? I would at first glance take that to mean 3gigabit? But you couldn't consider that slow, I hope?
3gb would be approximately 100,000 times what I have.
The fastest I ever had was 500kbs (advertised speed). It came with 8 gigabyte FREE.
(I've used faster when out of the bush, of course.)

just a usb like a flash drive that uses mobile phone signal from towers to access internet, the 3g stands for 3rd generation, the amount of data per month can be increased

The Huawei E220 is a Huawei HSDPA access device (modem) manufactured by Huawei and notable for using the USB interface (USB modem).

Technically it is a modem, USB and (due to the CDfs format) virtual CD-ROM device.

Launched on 21 June 2006[1], the device is used for wireless Internet access using 3.5G, 3G, or 2G mobile telephony networks. It supports UMTS (including HSDPA), EDGE, GPRS and GSM.

 

[dnmun]

you shoulda already gone over to chrome. u r wasting time on firefox. chrome is faster, save the world and delete the ie browser altogether. chrome rules.

 

[Gordo]

Firefox is not the problem.

 

[edcastrovalley]

you shoulda already gone over to chrome. u r wasting time on firefox. chrome is faster, save the world and delete the ie browser altogether. chrome rules.

Or gone over to a Linux operation system and firefox. To me Linux (Ubuntu or Mint in my case) and firefox is like stepping into an F-18 Hornet and blasting past all the window users below who are stuck in this very congestive traffic. Remember, cost based, pay to use software is all about protecting the revenue stream. A large portion of their software is created to deny access. You can get through only after you pay but then your only getting thru after many software checks running in the background, hogging your computer's resources at the expense of delays to you!

Take antivirus software, for example. To effectively deal with a virus, you can simply rewrite a portion of the OS (operating system) to defeat the virus. It's relatively simple to do and they do this all the time in Linux. Then you supply the rewritten software portion to the rest of the world through an "update", a feature that already exist in nearly all OS platforms. But nooooo, they felt the need to sell us a needlessly complex system of virus definitions and antivirus software, all running in the background hogging resources and slowing you down. Try not paying for a while but, oh yeah remember, it's all about protecting the revenue stream. Time to commence shut down! Or a least a slow death anyway.

Grrrrrrr, time to take a nap :x