Can't use FF3, won't get urls
mm
I'm having major problems with winXP home, and the same or another
problem clearly related to FF3.
At this instant, OE6 runs but FF3 won't retrieve urls. The day before
the problem described below started, I had installed the FF add-on,
Stylish, and it worked great, (coloring my visited google links in
Orange instead of the purple that google uses which is hard to tell
from the dark blue they use for unvisited links). I ran with it for
hours, hibernated, ran for more hours, but after I closed windows and
restarted it, my problems started.
Now Stylish 1.0.5 is disabled. Could it still be causing problems?
Now it is uninstalled. Could it still be causing problems?
Now it is uninstalled and all the others are disabled, and ff is
restarted and works no better.
And while I'm sure an add-on could cause problems for FF, could ANY
add-on cause problems in Windows when FF hasn't even been started yet?
Could installing Stylish have anything to do with screwing up the two
XP Services that don't seem to work now?
From the beginning:
All of a sudden one day, XP started taking 15 minutes to open and
after it did, I couldn't access the web.
I went to the msconfig.exe and unchecked all the Services and Start-up
programs, and then XP started at normal speed. I then started
rechecking them, 1/3 at a time, narrowing in on the problem ones.
It seems that two of the Services may be causing problems,
Shell Hardware Detection, which posts I found with google aassociate
with ~15 minute starting, and
Windows Time
(A third one, Network Access Protection Agent, seemed to be causing
problems, but that's not clear now, and it's checked now).
When the third one NAPAgent wasn't checked, I could get News through
Agent and Email with Eudora, but neither FF3 or OE6 would get a url.
So I checked NAPAgent and restarted and now OE works, but FF won't
fill in any tabs with a screen, let alone fetch a new url. Earlier in
the debugging above, when fewer things were checked, it would load
some of the previously open tabs, but wouldn't successfully respond to
Forward or Back and wouldn't retrieve a url that wasn't in a tab the
last time I closed FF, the night before the XP problem started, in
July.
What is it that is different about FF and OE?
Does it have anything to do with ZoneAlarm not running? When I first
got a firewall, I had to change a proxy setting in Netscape if I was
using it, but in the last few years, I've gotten the impression that
Netscape and Firefox will run whether the firewall is running or not.
For one thing, when I've been running out of ram, I've close ZoneAlarm
completely and the browser still worked. And right now I can't find
any proxy settings in FF preferences anyhow.
Because I also can't run most of AVG antivirus, or ZoneAlarm, and no
matter what combination of Services have been checked, since the XP
problem started, I havent' been able to dl new definitions for AVG or
Spybot S&D. I did however scan the harddrive with both of those two,
using the old defintions, and all they found were a bunch of tracking
cookies, which I deleted. I don't think I have a virus, since I
don't think I've ever had one and I don't do virus-vulnerable things,
like open attachments, but since the virus definition lists runs at
least a day or two behind the existence of viruses, if it was a brand
new virus, my AVG woudln't have known about it and still wouldn't.
Thanks for any help.
Peter Potamus the Purple Hippo
boy are you really screwed up on some of your thinking.
You are really confused on a few things.
First, OE is an email program. Firefox is a browser.
OE is not a browser and firefox is not an email
program. So, why are you trying to compare them?
Stylish might cause problems but it won't make it stop
accessing websites. If stylish is uninstalled, then it
wouldn't be causing problems now.
Addons can cause problems for firefox, such as taking
its sweet time in starting. But, since you didn't tell
us which version of FF you're using, them I'm going to
have to guess. There was a problem with an older
version of FF 3.5, which caused it to take a long time
to start, but that was corrected in the current
version. So, if you don't have the current one, get
it. The problem was actually a windows problem. FF
was reading crap information before it started. So, if
you had a lot of it, then some people were reporting it
taking 30 minutes to start. Possible Solution: Empty
your FF cache, cookies, and the window temp files.
A firewall has nothing to do with proxy settings in FF.
A firewall protects incoming and outgoing
information. A proxy lets you access another network.
Neither are related.
Can a firewall cause problems? If you uninstall it,
sure, it could. Information may still remain behind.
If you gave a program non-internet-access, and you
uninstalled it, then that info might still remain
behind, and deny that program future access. I've had
it happen many times. Another problem could be if
you're using zoneAlarms AND the windows own firewall.
That could cause problems. You should use one and stop
the other. If you can get new difs for ZA or Spybot,
then perhaps it is the windows firewall, and you're not
aware of it.
Stop worrying about tracking cookies, they're harmless.
As for firefox. Make sure you're using the current
version. Make sure that your firewall recognizes that
version. Some firewalls won't notice that you've
upgraded, and will deny you access and won't even tell
you this.
Next, close FF, then click on the windows start button,
then run and enter:
firefox.exe -p
this will start the FF profile manager. Click on
Manage Profiles and create a test profile. Start FF in
that. Does that profile work OK?
--
*IMPORTANT*: Sorry folks, but I cannot provide email
help!!!!
Warning: Private emails sent to me may become public
Peter Potamus & His Magic Flying Balloon:
http://melaman2.com/cartoons/singles/mp3/p-potamus.mp3
http://www.toonopedia.com/potamus.htm
mm
Thanks a lot. I'm still working on it.
But now I have another problem. Please see the next thread.