Internet connection on firefox is unstable

The internet connection on firefox often stops working after around 20 minutes of web browsing. However, IE doesn't seem to have any connection problem. The firefox loading bar basically stays empty, and the little circle thing on the tap just rotates without displaying the web page. I have a HP dv2700t with Windows Vista 64x installed, and I use wireless.

 

is your firefox updated? what version are u using

 

Was there a question here?

 

. what site were u visiting?
. when was the last time it worked?
. ......

cheers ...

 

I'm having the exact same issue. Check out this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=237922 and see if you can fix it with some of the suggestions posted. I still haven't solved my problem with FF+Internet.

 

I have also been having this issue for about two months now. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox, completely deleted all profile information, and tried using FF3 beta as well as FF2. I've posted about it over at the Mozilla Forums. There are a few good suggestions over there, and a couple of them seem to have worked for some other people who are having this problem, so you might want to read through that and see if you can get yours working again. Unfortunately I'm still having issues and am about ready to give up on FF after using it as my main browser since the 0.5 release days.

I'm Using Vista Ultimate, but haven't updated to SP1 yet (supposedly some of the drivers on my computer are not compatible yet with SP1). Hope this helps, if you fix your problem please post back in one of the threads with whatever seemed to work.

Thanks,
Dylan

 

Try installing the IE Tab, it really helps. Having to click on it every time FF gets stuck is a hassle, but the trick seems to work.

 

I tried to get IE Tab from Firefox addon website, but it doesn't let me install. It says "upgrade firefox" or "an older version may work". But mine is already 2.0013.

 

I had the same problem. I deleted Firefox 2 and 3 then I used CCleaner and removed all Temp files and cleaned the registry. That helped.

 

^ I tried that, it didn't do anything.

To make it work with FF 2.x, here's what y'all need to do:
Download the .xpi file. Open it with 7-Zip (free software). Select install.rdf, righ-click on it and select Edit. Find '' (no apostrophes), right next to it it should say 3.x. Change it to 2.0. Go to File>Save. 7-Zip will prompt you to update the .xpi file, select Yes. Open the .xpi file from FF: File>Open File...> Select the xpi file. Restart FF. It should work now.

If that doesn't work, install an older version of the add-on. Or just go ahead and install the older version first.

 

@corona7w, @dylanemcgregor, @octavia:
. seemed like common denominator of ur issues was certain page/sites that needed some IE tweak (IE Tab) to be able to work (sometimes)
. the question was, could you all share the pages/sites that u r having real problems with?
. there r sites that would blow any browsers away (minus pre-IE8 naturally), so it would be nice if we (me personally) could have a shot at those
. statement like FF (or any other browsers) not working, but pre-IE8 works, falls into the category of "vista not working, but xp works" - we are going only in circle ...

my 2 (us) cents

cheers ...

 

Hi qhn,

I'd love to share any common denominator I could, but at least in my case this doesn't seem to be site specific. What happens is that FF will be working fine, sometimes only for a few minutes...other times for a day or two...and then I will try to open a new tab (or sometimes just try to refresh the one I'm on) and Firefox will give me the spinning wheel that the OP describes...but won't ever load the page.

The pages that it won't load are usually the same pages that I was loading a minute before with no problems, and are not what you'd call overly complex. Yesterday it happened with forum posts on this site twice, but there really doesn't seem to be any normal pattern to it.

When FF does stop loading sites I've found that if I close it, the FF process doesn't close. If I close it before it has trouble then the process will close fine.

My only guess is that it might be some sort of network blip that happens, from which other applications are able to recover, but holds up FF. A friend told me I can take a look at the Windows Event Viewer to get an idea if this is true. So I'm going to try that the next time it happens.

 

just a suggestion trying to pinpoint the issue:
. FF tools->options->contents
. can u make sure that both options enabling java and enabling java script r ON?
. also what is ur Java RE version at the moment?

cheers ...

 

Both java and java script are enabled.

I'd been on JRE 1.6.0_03, but just updated to 1.6.0_05

 

So FF stopped loading again while I was browsing this site. I checked the event viewer and the only thing I could see that seemed relevant is that I've had a number of DHCP errors saying that I was not assigned an address by the DHCP server. Supposedly I've had 10 of those in the last hour and 55 in the last 24 hours. I'm a noob at this, so i'm not sure if this is relevant are not though.

 

want to try this?

. disable ALL ff extensions
. Rename the "Firefox" folder in the following directory:
---- XP C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla
---- Vista \Users\username\AppData\Local\Mozilla

to something like "Firefox-bak"

. reload Firefox

cheers ...

 

Thanks, but this is happening with a clean install of ff. I completely erased my profile (have it backed up on another machine) and installed fresh. The only extension I have is the TalkBack extension that comes with a new install. I'm using the default theme, and haven't even installed any plugins.

 

I never had this problem with FF 2.0, or the Beta 4, but when I start using the FF 3 beta 5, and I have the same problem.

 

For me it seemed to start with the FF 2.0.0.12 update...but going back to 2.0.0.11 or up to FF3 Beta didn't fix the issue.

 

just could not break it at the moment, i tried every possible combination i could think off, short of having ur environment of course

2.0.0.12 seemed to cause some stability issues, but 2.0.0.13 is rock solid
if you come across some additional info, post it up, would appreciate the follow-up and feedback

cheers ...

 

Thanks qhn, I really appreciate you giving a go at trying to troubleshoot. I've been working on this for awhile now, and seen a fair number of others with this issue at the Mozilla forums...but nothing I do seems to fix the problem.

If I do somehow fix it, or come across other data points I'll be sure to post back here.

Cheers,
Dylan

 

Thank you for trying to find a solution qhn.

Here's my input:

I don't have that problem. When there's an internet problem, I just close FF, check the Task Manager (sometimes), but FF is never there, or it disappears in a couple of seconds, but it never gets "stuck".

Both options are enabled. I use 1.4.2_08 because a program I use daily requires that version but it never caused any problems.

I also did a clean install. I deleted everything and installed FF in a different location. I used it that way (no add-ons) for about half a day, and the connexion seemed to drop at the same rate. I'm back to my old settings.

That's about right for me too. I don't know if it's related because the connexion issues weren't very closed to each other. But probably a few days later, the situation got really unacceptable, and again, only for a few seconds or a minute or two, then the same page could load up again.

I dont know if this is important or not but when the issues first showed up, I thought there was a problem with my router, so I kept checking the network speed. Before the problem, it kept a steady speed of 144 Mbps, but I almost never checked so I don't know if it ever fluctuated. After the issues, the speed would decrease A LOT. Sometimes to 33 Mbps and every speed in between. Sometimes it still fluctuates but I haven't seen any speed below 115 Mbps. This situation kept happening several times a day for 2-3 weeks. Now it still occurs but WAY less often and, as I said, the Network speed is not as stable as it used to. Again, I don't check it as often as before, so it might still fluctuate without my knowing.

 

Just to be clear, when you check the Task Manager, are you checking the Applications tab or the Processes tab? For me FF doesn't show in the applications tab after I close, but the process does stay running. With FF2 I can reopen FF fine, and I'll just get multiple FF processes running in the background. With FF3 Beta, it won't let me open another process with one running in the background. I get a "Firefox is already running" error.

 

I did mean the processes tab.

 

@dylanemcgregor, @octavia:
. much appreciate the feedbacks
. java 1.4.xx and above is fine (one can also run multiple javare version as wanted/needed - just need to set the path for whatever apps were being using at the time. But no influence in FF case)
. Minefield and FF3 beta should have the self-contained java plugin already inside the product. This would ensure that users not seeing any differences, should they r using other Java version for any personal reasons
. re FFxx not ending process(es) when it closes - this could be true in some rare instances where prefetcher is working (for this issue there r 2 registry entries that can influence greatly to the environment performance - AutoEndTasks and WaitToKillApp, search the net as how to manipulate them, i use them myself)
. i picked up from ur feedbacks that "ff would slow down after certain time up" - so going from there, and taking in consideration that u r not using any speed tweaking esxtension at the moment. If u do, u might want to restart FF from zero and try theses
. making sure that u r not running more than ONE firewall (my vista: winfirewall OFF; comodo ON, no defense; Avast)
. disable ur disk indexing, if not having done so
. set ur FF cache via tools options to 77MB
. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries, and set the value as stated below:

network.http.pipelining ...: true
network.http.proxy.pipelining ...: true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests ....:30

. look for "nglayout.initialpaint.delay"
. if not present:
right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0".

. close FF and retry

cheers ...

 

- so going from there, and taking in consideration that u r not using any speed tweaking esxtension at the moment. If u do, u might want to restart FF from zero and try theses
no speed tweaking extension here

. making sure that u r not running more than ONE firewall (my vista: winfirewall OFF; comodo ON, no defense; Avast)
I only have Zone Alarm running, I checked.

. disable ur disk indexing, if not having done so
I have no clue how to do that.

. set ur FF cache via tools options to 77MB
. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries, and set the value as stated below:

network.http.pipelining ...: true
network.http.proxy.pipelining ...: true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests ....:30

. look for "nglayout.initialpaint.delay"
. if not present:
right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0".

. close FF and retry
Done, done, done and done
cheers ...

After doing that, FF was working fine ...kinda.. some pages loaded up almost completely. That is, on the status bar 'Waiting ...' sometimes didn't change to 'Done', or the Loading message on the tab didn't change, but the page was fully loaded. But the pages per se looked normal. Now, about an hour ago I switched the computer on and FF was painfully slow again; IE worked fine. But the thing is that my network connexion got disconnected twice, I mean I only had Local access not Network access. I don't know if I'm experiencing two different problems or not because in the past, plugging a cable to the laptop didn't change anything with Firefox. I don't really know what to think because the issues are so random.

Edit: It happened again as i posted this reply, Firefox worked but it was really slow, about 5-10 seconds to load submit my message.

 

NBR has been having some slowdowns recently so it's not a very good idea to base your Firefox slowdowns on this site. Try some other sites, like youtube.

 

1 of 2 ways or both
To turn off indexing:
1. Open up "My Computer."
2. Right-click on your hard drive (usually "C:") and choose "Properties."
3. Uncheck the box at the bottom that reads "Allow Indexing Service to..."
4. Click OK, and files will be removed from memory. This removal may take a few minutes to complete.

To disable the indexing service:
1. In the "Start" menu, choose "Run."
2. Type "services.msc" and press Enter.
3. Scroll-down to "Indexing Service" and double-click it.
4. If the service status is "Running", then stop it by pressing the "Stop" button.
5. To make sure this service doesn't run again, under "Startup Type:", choose "Disabled."

one additional try, if u dont mind:
. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entry, and set the value as stated below:

network.dns.disableIPv6 ...: true

nbr does have some issues lately, as Calvin stated. But i m not surprised that ur issue can be also duplicated on some other sites as well

another thing to consider; if u have wireless, u might want to disable the wifi manager from the manufacturer and leave the handing of wifi connection to windows zero configuration alone

cheers ...

 

I did this a couple of days ago and I haven't had a drop ever since. I hope it lasts. Thank you much!!!

 

thank you for the feedback ... btw 2.0.0.14 is out, might want to move up to it - major work was done within java plugin/adaptation

cheers ...