412129 - http://localhost redirects to http://www.localhost.com every time. Problem exists only in firefox. IE, and safari both work correctly.

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[Jonathan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11

Firefox recently started to redirect me from http://localhost:3000 to http://www.localhost.com:3000

It also does it without the port specified.

It started doing it for no particular reason, and has been doing this ever since. perhaps it downloaded an update in the background that caused it to start miss-behaving?

There is a web server running at port 3000, both IE and Safari operate correctly. I have also tested using wdnslookup. So I think it is a firefox specific problem that is unrelated to DNS caches, my hosts file, etc.

if I use http://127.0.0.1:3000 it works correctly.

I started a forum discussion on MozillaZine a few days ago but I haven't managed to find a solution, might be a good place to get some background info (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=619637)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Be using my computer apparently :-P
2. go to http://localhost
3. find yourself at http://www.localhost.com

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This can't be in Firefox, moving to networking.
wfm in Seamonkey (trunk) and also in FF2.0.0.11.

Do you use a proxy or a firewall, do you get the same result in the Firefox safemode and also with a new additional test profile ?
Do you get the same result in FF3.0 Beta 2 ?

Comment 2

[Jonathan]

I've been through a lot of this stuff in the mozilla forums but i'll try to summarise it here again. 

The problem still exists after all of the following:

I don't use a proxy
Turned off windows firewall
Checked for the presence of malware
Turned off my virus scanner (Nod 32)
Tried safe mode
Tried creating a new profile
Tried re-installing
Checked my hosts file
Tried clearing my dns cache with these instructions: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/233/clear_windows_dns_cache 
Switched networks 3 times, 3 different ISPs, all different DNS servers
Tried a number of different applications (IE, safari, wdnslookup), they all work.
Searched Bugzilla, couldn't find any relevant reports
Checked event viewer, no errors or notifications from FF are present

At the moment I am using 127.0.0.1 and it works ok. It does however stop me from using sub domains in my application which I rely on so it'd be good to get localhost going again. I'll try FF3-b2 and see if that helps, hopefully it does...

Comment 3

[Jonathan]

The problem is fixed in FF3-b2! :-) oh happy days

However this isn't really ideal for me to use because a number of my plugins dont work with FF3 yet :-( is there an approximate release date for FF3? or is it the usual "when it's ready" date of open source?

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

That's a surprise that it works !
Long story:
I use Seamonkey/Mozilla since 8 years and i had never such problems. You must know that Firefox and Seamonkey are identical in 80%+ of the code because they both use Gecko (and networking is for example always 100% identical).
It works for me also in 2.0.0.11 on different windows systems
You tested a new profile and that should wipe all user settings away, it must work if you changed something in FF (preferences or addons) that would have caused this.
I don't think that something changed in the year of developing between FF2.x and FF3.x that could explain this.
The only conclusion i have is that if new profile doesn't work that something must block firefox (Firewall, Anti-virus scanner with hidden tunnel).

There are a few reports in bugzilla, here are a few (there are more with different search terms) : http://tinyurl.com/2uh6pj

Did you also try (for a workaround or test) to map localhost.com in your hostfile to 127.0.0.1 ?

I think they go the usual when it's ready rule but there should be somewhere a expected release time, but you have someone else for that :-)

Comment 5

[Jonathan]

I just tried re-mapping localhost.com and it didn't work? odd... why would the hosts file could be getting completely ignored? I even re-started and cleared my dns cache. Although, www.localhost.com doesn't work anymore so maybe it isn't getting ignored (actually I'm not sure if anything was ever there)...  Running the web server at port 80 doesn't help with that though.

Comment 6

[Jonathan]

Ok I found the problem now and I have to apologise.

I started reading through screeds of config for my antivirus because you said "the only conclusion I have is that it is being blocked"

ESET Nod32 was the culprit. Somehow it blacklisted firefox for http checking, but none of the other browsers/programs. Turning off the virus protection didn't help, but removing it from the blacklist did. Next time i need to stop my virus scanner I'm just going to kill the process! let's hope it doesn't spawn one for each little monitor it has... then you guys won't have to deal with fakie bug reports.

Sorry to file a bug report but it was so weird for me that firefox was the only program having problems.

Comment 7

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Great that I'm right :-)
Many firewalls and anti virus blocking doesn't stop if you only disable it.
Great that it works for you now.

marking invalid

Comment 8

[Alessandro Lai]

I have the same "bug". I have:
Vista Ultimate x64
FF 2.0.0.12
Avast Free Edition
No firewall
Apache installed locally on port 80.

If I use correct pages on my server, it works. But if I get (on other browsers like IE) a connection cancelled error, I get in FF this buggy redirection instead. Solution? I didn't find no blacklist on my AV :(


ps: I'm getting always a connection cancelled error because I'm failing on install phpMyAdmin :( this is driving me insane..

Comment 9

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Alessandra: Your problem is no bug, it's expected because it's a feature.
Firefox always does this if you enter a URL without TLD and you get a connection error on that URL.

Comment 10

[Alessandro Lai]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Alessandra: Your problem is no bug, it's expected because it's a feature.
> Firefox always does this if you enter a URL without TLD and you get a
> connection error on that URL.
> 

I know, but just because my URL is a "special one". There can't be a www.localhost.com (or .org\.net etc), localhost is reserved for loopback. So I think that it would be better if this feature will be disabled if url is localhost. In this way I will get the right "Connection cancelled" page, instead of a blank one, or something like that, as ALL the others browser do.

ps: BTW I'm AlessandrO, I'm male ;P

Comment 11

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

www.localhost.com is a valid url but the server is currently down.
It resolves to 10.11.12.13 for me....

But (!) my Firefox doesn't redirect localhost for me and i get a connection refused (no http server installed) for localhost.

Comment 12

[Alessandro Lai]

Yeah, just because you have nothing installed locally. I have an Apache server, so  if I get a correct URL I got the page. If I get a Navigation Cancelled error with IE, with the same URL FF redirects me.

And.. BTW, dont' you think that 10.11.12.13 is a fake IP address? :D

Comment 13

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

True 10/8 is private..., but i know that localhost had a real page in the past :
http://web.archive.org/web/20020802223000/http://www.localhost.com/