282318 - Browser hang over a slow link when using tabs

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: General, defect)

Description

[David Whiteley]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8b) Gecko/20050213 Firefox/1.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8b) Gecko/20050213 Firefox/1.0+

(Sorry if this is a dupe - found a few "hang" bugs but nothing that describes
what I'm getting.)

When dialling into my work network and browsing sites, Firefox does "spinning
beachball". This does not happen when connected directly via ethernet.

The network here includes a squid HTTP and HTTPS proxy server, which all web
traffic has to flow through.

The problem seems to occur most often when there are tabs open. Not just when
there are lots of tabs; even if only 2 or 3 are open.

While the page(s) loads, one can see the OSX-style "pinwheel" (the "in
progress"/"clock-hands" thing) in the tabs. The pinwheel freezes, and the
pointer turns to a beachball. After a few seconds, loading re-commences. This
slows down page loading. As a comparison, Safari can load the same tabs in about
half the time.

I've tried using auto-detect proxy settings (an excellent feature BTW),
automatic proxy configuration (PAC), and the manual proxy config options, with
no visible difference.

There is no crash involved, just slowed performance and a hang.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Connect to a dial-up connection.
2. Configure for an authenticating web proxy (HTTP and HTTPS).
3. Load a web page in the main window
4. While loading, open 2 tabs (for 3 tabs in total).
5. Load a page in each of them.

If necessary, go back and hit Reload so that at least 2 are loading simultaneously.
Actual Results:  
Firefox "hung" with the beachball pointer, on and off, for approximately 90
seconds. During that time, the entire interface became unresponsive, including
other pags which had already loaded.

Expected Results:  
Not hung; continued to be responsive. Even if the link is slow, the browser
should not hang while waiting for data.

Mac OS X 10.3.8
512MB RAM
PowerBook G4 1.25GHz

Comment 1

[David Whiteley]

BTW, uninstalled all extensions (realised I had AdBlock and Scrapbook
installed), and tossed my Firefox profile entirely, with no change.

Comment 2

[alpinism.nl]

I have been experiencing the same problem. When I browse tweakers.net and open a
topic in a new tab, the browser hangs and soaks up resources. I am unaware
whether this is due to the website or the browser.

platform:
Firefox (portable) 1.06
WINXP Pro

Comment 3

[Marnen Laibow-Koser]

I have been having a similar problem (with Firefox 2.0; it didn't happen on 1.5), but over a WiFi network with a DSL connection behind it. In my case, it doesn't appear to be related to multiple pages loading simultaneously; rather, it often happens when just one page is loading, particularly if I've recently switched to Firefox from another application. The beachball of death appears, often for several minutes, accompanied by lots of HD activity, and very often I have to kill Firefox from the command line.

It's almost enough to make me want to switch back to Safari (in fact, that's what I'm using to post this).

System info:
Mac OS X 10.4.8
1.42 GHz iBook G4
512 MB RAM

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This can't be reproduced, pelase reopen if you still get this