235922 - 'Feature' blocking access to arbitrary ports is vexing and not easy to disable

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[Joshua Kwan]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040202 Firebird/0.8.0+

The subject just about says it all. Ports such as 1080, which may well run some
random web service (or perhaps a web-configurable SOCKS proxy, who knows) - are
arbitrarily forbidden by Firefox, like an overprotective parent who won't let
his/her daughter cross the street until she's 18. Granted: this might be okay
for Aunt Tillie, but there is no easy way to disable the part of the code which
does this for people who know what they're doing.

Why not add an option to disable that whole chunk of the code easily? I suspect
it to be a trivial fix, unless this 'feature' was implemented with the grace and
style of a flying elephant; I would prepare a patch if no one has thought of one
already.

Note: I do _not_ want to know how to disable the block for single ports at the
time in my prefs.js. This information is well known and I am currently using it
now, but it is obviously a hack for a much more simple and elegant solution.

If a fix would be refused, I would certainly like to have concrete reasons of
why the 'feature' exists.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to http://localhost:1080/
2. Get greeted with a dialog box forbidding you access.

Actual Results:  
Anger ensued.

Expected Results:  
It should have either offered to disable itself or not exist at all.

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

not just in Firefox... -> HTTP Networking for the appropriate duping

Comment 2

[Alfonso Martinez]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 85601 ***

Comment 3

[benc]

REOPEN: this was fixed.

Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
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you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.