Idea for help with firewalls for 2.0.0.13
bba...@gmail.com
Firefox 2.0.0.13 is expected in the next couple days. If you watched
SUMO Forum in February when 2.0.0.12 was released (and the MozillaZine
Forums after .11, .10, .9, .8, ..., etc. ), you'll know there were
several hundred reports of firewalls silently blocking Firefox's
connection or causing unusual behavior, and there were plenty of
frustrated "this is Mozilla's fault" messages.
In the forum:
* If the poster mentions what type of security software they're using,
we can redirect them to the SUMO KB article with specific
configuration instructions for the firewalls listed at (http://
kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls).
* If they don't mention what software they're using, it's more
effective to link to MozillaZine's firewalls page (http://
kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls), which has specific configuration for
more programs
This catches lots of firewalls, but there are certainly more. Linking
to MZ is fine, but obviously we should add more to the SUMO KB. I
think the Configuring Kaspersky Internet Security Article (http://
support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Configuring+Kaspersky+Internet+Security)
is an example of a very well-done article (screenshots, specific,
detailed instructions), and should be the model for all additional
ones.
With that in mind: There were a couple of reports of problems with
Norton 360 in the forums. I asked one of the posters who had it if he
would provide me screenshots so we could write an article for it with
detailed instructions. He (FotoVizions) was glad to help, and provided
me with screenshots and his correspondence with Symantec. With that, I
wrote the Configuring Norton 360 article (http://support.mozilla.com/
en-US/kb/Configuring+Norton+360).
So, my idea is: Could we put a post on the SUMO Blog (http://
blog.mozilla.com/sumo) asking for help with getting specific
configuration instructions for all the Internet Security/antivirus/
firewalls that we can. We could have a couple guidelines for what we
need (e.g. instructions for getting to the program's config page,
getting to the allow list, how to remove Firefox's exemption, how to
add it back, screenshots for each step in PNG format, etc.) and a list
of programs we've got/need. I'll write the post, if necessary. This
not only helps improve our KB, but provides an easy way to get the
many clueful readers of Planet.Mozilla.org involved in helping with
SUMO.
Thoughts?
Chris Ilias
> So, my idea is: Could we put a post on the SUMO Blog (http://
> blog.mozilla.com/sumo) asking for help with getting specific
> configuration instructions for all the Internet Security/antivirus/
> firewalls that we can. We could have a couple guidelines for what we
> need (e.g. instructions for getting to the program's config page,
> getting to the allow list, how to remove Firefox's exemption, how to
> add it back, screenshots for each step in PNG format, etc.) and a list
> of programs we've got/need. I'll write the post, if necessary. This
> not only helps improve our KB, but provides an easy way to get the
> many clueful readers of Planet.Mozilla.org involved in helping with
> SUMO.
>
> Thoughts?
I think that's a great idea. Most of the article comments on
<http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firewalls> are for McAfee.
Some others for the list (based on article comments):
* PC-cillin
* AT&T firewall
* Panda firewall
* Comodo
* Bitdefender
* Defender Pro
* Webroot Desktop firewall
* "trend virus secerity" (which I assume is Trend Micro)
* AVG firewall
* Mac firewall
FWIW, the Firefox 2.0.0.13 release notes will point to the Firefox
Support KB article. <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=416268>
Jason Barnabe (np)
> According to (http://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases/Firefox_2.0.0.13),
> Firefox 2.0.0.13 is expected in the next couple days. If you watched
> SUMO Forum in February when 2.0.0.12 was released (and the MozillaZine
> Forums after .11, .10, .9, .8, ..., etc. ), you'll know there were
> several hundred reports of firewalls silently blocking Firefox's
> connection or causing unusual behavior, and there were plenty of
> frustrated "this is Mozilla's fault" messages.
I'm going to run some stats after the release to see how many of these
questions we really get. If it's still a large amount after everything
we do, I think we should consider adding it to the "Ask a question"
page for a set time period after each release.
Good idea on getting more firewalls. I wrote the first few articles
but I didn't know what other firewalls were popular. You should be
able to tell from the comments what the next most popular ones are.