From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Consolidated article

There was a discussion started here about whether the three "website" articles that this one links to, should be combined into one article (possibly this one). That would avoid confusion about which article contains what information, and the three articles do overlap. Alice Wyman 01:50, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

...and, there was also a discussion about the overlap between the "any website" and "some websites" articles on the Talk:Error_loading_some_websites page. Alice Wyman 02:02, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

BTW, did you post this discussion in Knowledge Base changes? --name already taken 02:07, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

No I didn't. I'll do that now!! Alice Wyman 23:28, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

My only concern is that the article might be too long to be usable, but we could see how it works by merging them in a sandbox for testing. --name already taken 07:48, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Maybe we could shorten the Error loading any website article first, possibly by replacing all the information in the "Firewalls" section about specific Firewall programs (after "Here is some firewall-specific information:") with a link to a new "Firewalls" article? <snipped Alice Wyman 23:46, 29 July 2006 (UTC)> That would make the Error loading any website article much shorter. Alice Wyman 13:47, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Good idea. A separate firewall article is an improvement, and it would make it straightforward to combine the other 3 (4). The proposed firewall article looks fine. AnotherGuest.

OK, I added that suggestion to Talk:Error loading any website. Lets wait to see if there are any objections. If not, I'll create the new Firewalls article and replace that content with a link in the Error loading any website article. After that's done, the three articles can be combined into one :-) Alice Wyman 14:21, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Alice asked me to look at this proposal page. Dickvl

I like the idea about a separate firewall article. There was an update to Fx 1.5.0.5 and with every update most problems are a firewall problem or localstore / lost bookmarks. Firewall problems start after an update / reinstall of Fx or maybe an update of the firewall program. Once that setup is ok then it should work fine.

About DNS problems: if you have a ISP with bandwidth problems of the DNServers then you can never predict what happens if you visit a site. I think it is better not to confuse the users with whether a problem is random or that it only happens on a few websites (some DNServers can also have bad or missing entries for specific sites). Sometimes a website blocks certains IP's

Connection Settings: I miss a description on where to find the IE settings. Most users won't know where to look for it. (e.g. Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Connections: LAN)
Dickvl 20:03, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

There is now a new Firewalls article. I guess we can shorten the Error loading any website article now and link to it. (done!) At that point, I guess we can combine the three "website" articles into one, as originally planned, under Error loading websites? Alice Wyman 19:32, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I consolidated all three "website" articles and placed my proposed new "Error loading websites" article here:<snip>. I figured it would be better to work off my user page, same as for the Firewalls article, before making the change for real. Anyone who likes can edit away or create their own version :-) Alice Wyman 23:04, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and implemented the changes and redirected the other articles to this one. Alice Wyman 10:02, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

P.S. I didn't do anything with the associated Talk pages..... Those pages are still located at Talk:Error loading any website Talk:Error loading some websites and Talk:Websites randomly don't load Alice Wyman 15:16, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Utilities that modify Fx settings

Moved to Knowledge Base changes.

DNS - link to wdnslookup.exe

You can check the speed of your DNS server by downloading a small program, "wdnslookup.exe", which was written by a MozillaZine moderator. ..... AnotherGuest, you added this to the article under the DNS section yesterday but you didn't include any documentation or reference link. I'm leery about adding direct .exe links like that to the KB as a matter of principle. At the very least, the link should be to a forum post or to a webpage that includes more information. Alice Wyman 20:44, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

...Update: <snip> Trolly has put up a webpage here that includes a wdnslookup.exe download link and additional information, which I added to the article with his permission. Alice Wyman 19:37, 8 October 2006 (UTC) ....

Router problems?

Routers may redirect the request to fetch a page from a particular IP-address to the local network if the subnet mask has been defined too broadly. For example: if you are behind a router or some device that functions like a router (e.g. a storage gateway) with the following (fictitious) settings: IP-address 80.80.80.194 and subnet-mask 255.0.0.0 then (at least with some routers) no website with an IP-address beginning with 80 (80.x.x.x) will load because the request will never go out to the internet. You will notice that the packet gets lost when you ping the IP-address in question. The subnetmask should be defined more narrowly. If for instance your fixed IP-address is part of a range of a few IP-addresses on a local network, then the subnetmask might be defined as for instance: 255.255.255.248 or if it's the only one, as: 255.255.255.0. Some sources will tell you that this is the wrong subnet-mask for a class A IP-address. They may be right, but then the algorithm in some routers is probably wrong. Try it out anyway. You might well find that the websites that previously wouldn't load, now will. Try it out to see if this does the trick.

I think that's a bit too technical for our audience. Also, I'm guessing there could be many things wrong with a router so suggesting this one specific thing isn't likely to help.--Np 21:54, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

It's been removed.--Np 21:04, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Keyword lookup

If you type an incomplete address or if you try to access a Web site by Internet keyword, your browser will attempt to fill in the missing information or supply the correct URL for the keyword. Your Internet service provider or proxy service may also do this. The results may vary, depending on your browser settings and your environment. See Keyword.URL and Keyword.enabled for more information.

While this is true, it wouldn't cause an error, would it? Rather, it would bring the user to an unexpected place.--Np 21:56, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

It's been removed.--Np 21:04, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Error loading some websites

Noticed that this link (? from the google cache) doesn't work anymore:

• The website may have blocked your IP address. [1]

Does anyone know what it was about?
--Dickvl 22:05, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

The link was added 13 September 2006 by AnotherGuest according to a page history comparison, if that helps. I would just remove the link if you can't find a new one. Alice 01:47, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

It must have been a nice reference, but there's no way I can find it now. Link removed.--AnotherGuest. 20:22, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Other security programs - Spybot TeaTimer and Kaspersky Antihacker

It was recently added that other security programs besides firewalls, including Norton and Symantec Antivirus, Kaspersky Antihacker and Spybot TeaTimer, can completely block access to the internet. I just added that the Resident TeaTimer tool of Spybot S&D (as well as AVG Antivirus) can interfere with Software Update and included a forum link but I didn't know that TeaTimer can completely block internet access. This forum post by trolly that said, blocking was reported from Norton AV, Kaspersky Antihacker and Spybot (Teatimer ?) but no reference was given. I'm editing the article to simply say that these programs "may block internet access or cause other connection issues", pending more info. Alice 01:47, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I found this review of Kaspersky Anti-hacker which describes it as a FIREWALL so it shouldn't even be included in this section. I couldn't find anything to show that Spybot's TeaTimer blocks Firefox from accessing the internet, although I did find some posts on other forums from people who thought that TeaTimer was blocking internet access... when it wasn't ([2] [3]) [4] 02:57, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I removed the reference to Spybot's Resident TeaTimer tool blocking internet access, based on the above and a PM reply from trolly saying that 'I'm not sure if it was teatimer but there are enough proofs that teatimer can prevent updates. I also removed the TeaTimer (and AVG) Software Update reference since it is really a separate issue.* l removed the Kaspersky Anti-hacker reference since firewalls are covered in another section. Alice 12:29, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

It's becoming apparent that detailed rules (e.g., in Kaspersky Antihacker, Symantec Antivirus, and probably just about any other program) can block Internet access in an almost unlimited number of ways. So far I have info on DNS, secure sites, and access to localhost. I have added info to the articles on secure sites, error loading Web sites, and firewalls. I'm almost positive I haven't covered it. I suspect that these programs are responsible for a huge number of complaints on the forum. Something to watch, for sure. I wonder if these little notices stuck here and there in the documentation are not really adequate compared to the magnitude of the problem.--AnotherGuest. 12:25, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Speaking of Kaspersky Antihacker, it was integrated into Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0, according to the review of Kaspersky Anti-hacker I linked earlier. According to http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/internet-security.php the current version is Internet Security 7.0 and, under "Key Features", it lists Antivirus, Spyware, Spam and Anti-Hacker (e.g. firewall) protection. It seems that companies have shifted away from separate antivirus spyware and firewall products in favor of a "suite" of products with an integrated user interface. It's going to be hard to keep the Firewalls article current, and also take into account that people may still be using older versions. We should make sure we include current links to the forums or support sites for all these programs, where people can get more detailed help, since after all, we can't be expected to be experts on configuring all of them. Alice 14:27, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Some of our folks have considerable experience with multiple security products. See Is "security" software the root of all evil?. I would think we can and should give general information on what these programs can do -- which is JUST ABOUT ANYTHING THEY WANT TO DO. And that advice probably ought to be pervasive. Standard Diagnostic? Check your security software. Details and links to more info here. Browser displayed sideways? Security software. Missing any children or pets? Yep, your security software did it. Can't watch You-Tube at work? Ask your boss. Well, you get the idea.--AnotherGuest. 17:57, 26 September 2007 (UTC)