289412 - First attempt to open a site fails (time out) from either external program or within firefox, then works on next try

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[David]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2

when opening a link to a new site (ie not already seen in the session) from
either an external app (ex: trillian) or from within firefox (ex: google
result), very often the first attempt to load the site fails on a timeout after
a few seconds. trying to open it again then works. 
however, even on timeouts, the site's icon is displayed in the current tab --
which is a good way of seeing that the page should have been loaded and is worth
another try. 

this happens both on a win2k SP4 comp and on a macos X 10.2.8 comp (both with
firefox 1.0.2 i think). 

this bug is somehow related with bug #268915, however it happens so often that i
think it deserves its own entry. 

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
doesn't always work (or rather, opening the links sometimes works), but basically:
1. click on a link 
2. get the timeout
3. see that the icon has been displayed in the tab
4. try to open the link again
5. it works! :-)



Expected Results:  
that the site be opened on the first try. as has been pointed out, the address
is not displayed in tab that timed out, therefore one has to get back to the
link and click on it again.

Comment 1

[David]

just noticed that the same problem also happens when directly typing the URL in
the address bar and pressing enter. in such a case, the URL remains displayed in
the address bar, therefore one just has to click on it and press enter again to
load the page. 

Comment 2

[David Balažic]

I noticed something similar.

If I click a link in Gaim , FireFox is started and it tries to open the link,
but it fails. It tries to load, but nothing gets done, the activity indicator
just spins, as if the web page were unavailable. Clicking the same link in Gaim
again, open a new tab in FF where it loads without problems ( the first tab is
still "spinning" after that). Or enetrering the URL by hand in a new tab also works.

Versions :

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317
Firefox/1.0.2
Extensions : SubMitToTab 0.3; Tabbrowser Preferences 1.2.4; ClearHTTPAuth v??

Windows XP Pro SP2
Gaim 1.2.1

Comment 3

[David Balažic]

The behavior is reproducible (currently, it may go away after reboot ;-)

I also noticed, that the BACK button is not working correctly in the first tab:
I visited a few pages, but the BACK button is disabled. The FORWARD button OTOH
is enabled, but it shouldn't be. If I click it, nothing happens. It seems the
first tab is really foobared. ( it's activity indicator is still spinning; if I
do something in another tab and switch back to the first, the common activity
indicatro (in the menu bar) is taken over: if it was active, it stays active, if
not, it stays inactive, regardless of the state of first tab).

Comment 4

[David Balažic]

Another thing: I get the same problem when clicking a linik in MS Outlook, so it
is not just Gaim.

Note: I am not having FF running, when I click, it is started as a result of the
click.

Comment 5

[David]

it's not only with external links. i have a quick link to userfriendly.org, and
even this sometimes doesn't work. what's weird, i visit it every day (of
course... :-) ), and i never shut down my computer in the evening, and i always
have several firefox windows opened, so the firefox application is never
terminated. still when i try to open the link in the morning, it sometimes fails
in the way described earlier. so apparently it doesn't have much to do with
whether it's a new firefox session or not... 

note: userfriendly.org is only an example, the same happens with other sites of
course

Comment 6

[Ryuichi KUBUKI]

WFM on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050530
Firefox/1.0+

>this happens both on a win2k SP4 comp and on a macos X 10.2.8 comp (both with
>firefox 1.0.2 i think). 

It suggests network problems apparently.

Comment 7

[David]

not sure about the network problems. i have the problem at two places:
- at home on my macintosh (macos 10.2.8 on a titanium 550): i have a DSL
flatrate, and a firewall, but i can't expect the firewall to be the problem
- at work, on my win2k PC: the problem occurs only with firefox, not with IE 6. 

i'm actually surprised not more people report the problem, as it seems to have
stricken me quite heavily.
i'll run a poll in the company to ask other people if they have noticed it with
firefox. 

Comment 8

[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
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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 9

[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.