Connectivity until Firefox is restarted

Kayla77

New Member
I've had a strange problem for a few months. It wasn't a big deal until my secondary laptop began having problems and I resorted to using this slower laptop which hasn't been used much the last 2-3 years.

Basically, if I boot up my laptop, connect wirelessly or hard-wired, my internet connection is working fine and Firefox works well. My connection doesn't drop and my downloads aren't interrupted or broken or slowed. But, the moment I restart Firefox (with an add-on), the connection is dropped and I cannot reconnect unless I reboot my laptop. If I close FF then open it, it's the same result. Due to this odd issue, I've resorted to leaving Firefox open for many hours, sometimes more than a day or I reboot my laptop.

If I leave Firefox open, disconnect from the internet then put my laptop to sleep then wake it up 8+ hours later, so long as Firefox is open from the previous day, I can connect wirelessly or wired and it works fine. This has become my workaround. It is an annoyance to be sure but it also forces me to leave only one tab or two open, both of which I set to google so I can just use the back button. Otherwise, the ram hog aka Firefox, will take up too many resources. I download heavily, primarily from youtube and normally, when I don't need the browser to be open to initiate downloading, it's closed. Now, I have to be careful with my 1GB ram laptop because I can't run more than 2-3 heavier applications.

It also affects Chrome, a browser I don't care to use. I haven't tried IE. I'm assuming it's my system. Initially, I thought it was Firefox so I reset it but no dice. I tried modifying my DNS settings including flushing my dns and deleting my browser cache. Nothing. I googled the issue for many hours. I thought it might be my laptop's battery saving function to interrupt the connection to save power. But, I disabled that function. Nothing changed. I did a hard reset of the router. I disconnected the router and modem and reconnected.

How can there be something very wrong with the wireless capability or my ethernet port if I can connect easily and use the internet without issues for hours upon hours? Sometimes, I will download a youtube playlist with 60+ videos which takes several hours. I'm busy doing something else and I return and it's still working fine. That is, unless and until I try to restart or close my browser and open it again.

If it's my firewall, something I haven't looked into ,then wouldn't it block any attempt to connect? Wouldn't the same apply to my antivirus?

As I type, I have the laptop in question open. In the Network and Sharing Center, it says my wireless signal strength is excellent and that I'm connected. I cannot browse with Firefox because I restarted it. But, it's not showing any problems when I attempt to diagnose using the "diagnose and repair" function. Previously, upon trying to diagnose and repair, it was suggested to reset the network adapter. It has never worked. Other times, it finds no problem. Most of the time, I observe the connection break and then it reconnects only to break again minutes later. It can go back-and-forth for a long time.

ETA: the specs for the laptop in question are Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Service Pack 2.

Also, I ran malware/virus scan. It's clean. I do windows updates regularly and my antivirus, firewall are updated.
 
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Will the other Laptop run long enough to copy the Firefox profile onto USB? If you partition setup and Firefox versions are the same it may be worth copying the profile over after first backing up the profile of the Firefox with the issue. If there is some setting causing the problem copying the "good" profile into the location of the bad one may fix it.

Or you could try a Firefox Nightly to see if the quirk got fixed. It will install to its own folder and pick up your settings and AddOns without overwriting the old ones. This option is probably easier and safer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
If it is also affecting Chrome, then it isn't likely a browser issue. Turn off your firewall for testing purposes. If you don't have the problem with the firewall off, then you've discovered the issue. Also, make sure you only have one firewall at a time running. Your security software may have its own firewall and it may conflict if Windows Firewall is running at the same time.

I don't know anything about proxies, but see if your computer is using one. That may also provide a clue.

Also, while you're at it, try it on IE. Do as much troubleshooting as you know how to do. That way, when you come to a forum like this, you'll be able to provide much more information.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
Thank you both for responding. MilesAhead, they aren't the same version so that wouldn't work. Given it's affecting other browsers, it's probably not a corrupted profile.

My firewall was disabled for a few minutes for some unknown reason. It didn't affect anything. But, since I did not disable it on purpose or at least I don't think I did, I will try your suggestion. The firewall that comes with Windows is always disabled. I use Comodo and I had already checked to make sure there was no such conflict. I'll report back once I try that. My current IE is 9 so I'll upgrade and report back on that as well. Thanks Andy.
 

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The corrupted profile only concerns trying a new Chromium snapshot, then backing off to an older one. It has nothing to do with what is on your system now.

Edit: I was confused when I typed in the above. Sorry. :)
(I guess there's no strike through here?)


With networking problems the first thing to try is turn off all firewalls, av programs etc.. I don't think I've ever been able to set up a network on a machine out of the box without turning off the firewall.

Once everything is working try turning the security stuff back on one thing at a time.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Kayla77, if you find a way to upgrade IE9 on a Vista machine, please let us know. I think IE9 is as current as Vista will let you get.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
Kayla77, if you find a way to upgrade IE9 on a Vista machine, please let us know. I think IE9 is as current as Vista will let you get.

The alternative would be a browser that uses the IE engine such as MaxThon.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Please forgive this belated reply.

I upgraded to IE9. I was able to use the internet without interruption and without having to restart my laptop.

But, before that, I disabled my firewall (Comodo) and then was able restart my Firefox without connectivity being an issue. So, I enabled Comodo again and checked the settings and there was nothing that was blocked and I didn't see anything noteworthy [considering my limited knowledge of firewalls). I then restarted my browser and it is working normally without forcing a restart. So, I don't know what happened but after months, it's working fine. It's only been two days but I'm hoping it continues. The only thing I can think of is that disabling then enabling did something.... the way a temperamental computer works fine after restarting.

Thank you both so much for your help. I really appreciate your kindness. :)
 

My Computer

Glad it worked out. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Let us know how it goes after a bit. I'd be curious to know.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
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