269021 - System idle breaks Firefox network connectivity

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[Mark]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

When a program such as a Agnitum Firewall (agnitum.com) detects the system as
idle (no keyboard, mouse, or network activity) for a certain number of minutes
it can then block all network access until the user moves the mouse or presses a
key, a which point it unblocks network access. When Agnitum detects the system
to be idle and blocks all network access, and then the user mouses the mouse or
presses a key to enable network access again then Firefox no longer communicates
with the network -- e.g. will not do DNS lookup nor load a Web page. If I try to
select "Work Offline" from the menu the browser hangs and the must be process
must be manually terminated. After a restart of Firefox it then works alright
again. 

Other applications open on the desktop (mail, IE, newsreader, etc) are not
affected in this way. So I think it's a bug in Firefox. 



Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set Agnitum Firewall to block network access when system is idle for 3 minutes.
2. Let the firewall block access by letting the system sit idle for 3 minutes.
3. Move the mouse or keyboard to unblock network access, then try to surf with
Firefox. 

Actual Results:  
Firefox would not move any traffic onto the network layer. 

Expected Results:  
Performed DNS lookup and attempted to access the given URL.

Comment 1

[Mark]

I should note that this problem appeared with Agnitum Firewall 2.5, which has
the new "block network access" idle timer feature. Previous versions didn't have
the feature. 

Comment 2

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

This is a similar bug like I already reported - bug 253060. I can see that when
reactivating my computer from hibernation mode. Network access is still working
but I've problems to access a shared network profile. 

This behavior I can't reproduce but will testing it. Perhaps switching off and
reactivating the network connection should do the same?

Comment 3

[Mark]

In my experiences, system hibernation mode doesn't break network access for
Firefox when the system awakes. Nor does unplugging the Ethernet cable. It only
happens when the firewall disables network access due to system inactivity. It
also happens if I manually config the firewall to block all network access.

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

does that also happen if you block all networking access except localhost ?

Comment 5

[Mark]

> Additional Comment #4 From Matti (Matthias "hating marquee" Versen) 
2004-11-11 15:43 PDT

>does that also happen if you block all networking access except localhost ?(In
reply to comment #4)

When network access blocking is enabled it blocks everything, including
localhost communication. There's no way for me to specify something like "except
Localhost" so I have no control over that aspect. 

Comment 6

[Mark]

After further testing, I find that Firefox behaves in the same way after a
system is put to sleep and then awakened again.

I have a laptop, and if "suspend" it so that it shuts down (but not completely
powers off) and then bring it back up again, sometimes firefox looses its
ability to contact the network.

So I don't think problem has much to do with firewall interactivity. It seems to
be something about the network layer itself. Maybe the loopback? I don't know. 

I hope you get this fixed for version 1.1 as it is incredibly annoying and makes
using the browser iffy at best, on my laptop anyway. 

Comment 7

[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
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 8

[Mark]

This problem occurs on two of my systems -- one is Windows 2000 and the other is
XP.  Anytime Firefox loses communication with the loopback adapter it does not
re-establish that communication and must be closed and restarted. This happens,
for example, if the firewall blocks access to the loopback for whatever reason,
such as blocking all traffic when the system is idle for X minutes. I can
re-create this problem with ease. 

Comment 9

[Mark]

This problem occurs even with Firefox 1.5 Beta 1. 

Comment 10

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

(In reply to comment #8)
> This problem occurs on two of my systems -- one is Windows 2000 and the other is
> XP.  Anytime Firefox loses communication with the loopback adapter it does not
> re-establish that communication and must be closed and restarted. This happens,

Mark, do you get any error message or information what happens? If yes, please
tell it. Further look inside the event/application protocol to find something
which could belong to this one.

Comment 11

[drumz0rz]

Year old bug. Cannot reproduce the issue with the lastest build.

Comment 12

[John G Innes]

My wireless laptop [VAIO VGN SZ220 with XP Home SP2, ZoneAlarm Firewall] suffers repeatedly from the problem the system tray icon shows "System connected at 54Mbps 'Signal strength excellent", but Firefox 2.0 and Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 suddenly are 'unable to connect to server'. It happens as often as every 30 minutes sometime even in the middle of my wife's work session. Formerly we would use the "Repair" function in the Network Connections or in worst case reboot. The laptop is within 20 feet of an ATT wireless router in the next room. I do not have this problem with my desktop system which is connected to the router via ethernet cable.

I have isolated this problem to Mozilla because I found a new cure: When the problem occurs we start Internet Explorer 7 [7.0.5730.11] which can connect to the internet with no problem. As soon as IE connects, then Firefox and Thunderbird can connect. Note that I only keep IE for dumb update programs that require it.

I had been driving Sony crazy before I found this solution. Sony has checked the wireless setup, had me tweek settings, and install the latest wireless driver update. Now they say 'talk with Mozilla'.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Mark, Reporter, appears to be gone.  No comment since 2005-09-27 and no response to ping January and Feb 2007

closing incomplete

Joh, if you still see your problem in a 2.0.0.5/6 version of thunderbird or firefox please file a new bug.