442502 - FF3 incredibly slow to load pages when network settings set to auto-detect proxy settings

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Dov]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061015 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061015 Firefox/3.0

FF3 has been so slow for me that I installed Opera instead. Tried re-installing 0 no help. Finally I checked my settings again. Was set to auto-detect proxy settings. Changed it to "No Proxy" and FF3 FLIES FAST AGAIN!

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set to auto-detect proxy for this network
2. Go to any URL
3. Make cup of tea while you wait.
Actual Results:  
Page retrieval/rendering very, very slow. Even Google took about 10 seconds.

Expected Results:  
Should be as fast or faster than Opera or IE.

Not sure if auto-detect is the default value or not in network settings as I have previously used a proxy (with FF2 on Ubuntu Gutsy but I used the same home partition when I upgraded my system to Ubuntu Hardy and ff3).

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

Auto-detect would only help in a corporate environment, because it looks for a PAC file called <http://wpad.example.com/wpad.dat>. Normally the lookup for the wpad host will fail, and that will be remembered.

Note that it's *not* the default value.

Comment 2

[Jo Hermans]

Auto-detect will NOT detect the system proxy settings, i.e. it's not an automatic mode. It's only used in networks (enterprises mostly) where there's a WPAD server. I guess you have a problem in that regard, Maybe it finds such a WPAD server in DNS, but the connection times out every time.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

can you reproduce in version 3.6 or http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/ ?
Jo, are you saying this is not a Firefox problem?

Comment 4

[Jo Hermans]

I don't know why comment 0 claims that auto-detecting a proxy was slowing things down. When no WPAD server is found in the DNS lookup, this will be remembered, and not cause to much of a problem. And if a WPAD server was found, but not answering, this too will be remembered.

I don't think this was a Firefox problem, maybe Dov found a (slow) WPAD server in the network of his ISP, which caused problems. But auto-detect is not the default value.

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.13 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.