446241 - Unwanted live search (search.live.com) using "search from url bar" feature, lucky searching

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Jack]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; pl; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; pl; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

[See: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.firefox/browse_thread/thread/ded26eaaf21117cc#]

While using "lucky search" in address bar I'm redirected to MS LIVE SEARCH. In my Firefox there are no settings that point in any way to "live", "msn". My default search browser is google.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Type "test" in URL bar
2.Accept
3.Status 302 and live search opens
Actual Results:  
While using "lucky search" in address bar I'm redirected to MS LIVE SEARCH.
Firefox hac actually nothing to say, because this redirection comes directly from OS (Vista). Same search address show up while doing the same thing in IE 7 (search.live.com?(...); same url-pattern;parameters etc.)

Expected Results:  
Firefox should decide for himself and select user defined search engine for this task.

More information about this bug:
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.firefox/browse_thread/thread/ded26eaaf21117cc#

It happens very often on VISTA runing computers (it suck).

Comment 1

[Jack]

Important thing to notice is that the vista takes andventage on how to resolve problem with http-404 and that does not let use search feature from URL bar in firefox.

This *thing* showed up few weeks ago, after software update I guess. I recive daily updates from M-Soft; firefox has it own updates too, so its hard to say, which one caused this problem.

Comment 2

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Do single-word searches behave differently than multiple word searches? E.g., does entering "foo" in your location bar give you different results than entering "foo bar"?

Comment 3

[Jack]

"test test test" - opens Google
"test" - opens Live search
"testtesttesttesttest" - opens Live search

Comment 4

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Right, OK. So something at the DNS level is forwarding requests to Live Search (we don't even try resolving the host if it can't be parsed as a URI, which is the case for multiple words).

It could be either Vista itself, or your ISP, or some other third party program on your computer. I can't reproduce on my local Vista machine, but my ISP has frustratingly begun resolving nonexistent hosts and forwarding those to it's own search page, so if it is Vista or something local doing it I wouldn't be able to see it anyways.

Comment 5

[Jack]

I've got apache runing and I'm connected to my own DNS, so im pretty sure that no 3rd party soft. is involved. The funny thing is, that the browser does not try to HTTP 302 anything that doesn't look like a local address, such "localhost", "mylocalnetwork" etc. Everything else is working okay and firefox does its best to handle the request.

And yes, it might look like DNS-related problem cause as I wrote, typing "test" in IE7 and FF3 will result in 302 to the same address:
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={query}&form=MSSRPD

But those settings, this URL pattern is stored somwhere, but I cannot find it.

The funny thing is that on my right hand I've got a second computer (FF2, XP SP2) that is a server for my local network; it also uses the same DNS and everything is okay.

I think that this problem might be caused by some kind of a vista local loopback (or smthn). If request looks like a local reference (/^[a-Z]+$/), try to bring it, otherwise go to "search.live[...]". Such behaviour would make sense, cause there is no need to look up for such names in the DNS.

I'll try to find out better how this whole process looks, cause im not good at it. Thats only theory.

And remember that this problem isn't just related to me; many people* (not everybody) around me were complain' about this strange FF behaviour, that's why i posted it in here. There were even some jokes about mozilla sponsored by M$ in the last few days. 

I'll try to digg out as much as I can.

* - no; we do not use the same DNS, hosting provider or whatever.

Comment 6

[Jack]

Solution is simple. I cant guarantee it will work for everyone, but you can try.

Change default domain suffix which is set to mshome.net (this domain catches all requests, even if they are not valid, then pushes us out to search.live.com - try to open it in browser: mshome.net). I propose changing this to example.com.

test.example.com returns 404 error, and google lunches.
www.example.com returns 200, so by typing in our browser "www" we will be redirected to example.com

Rule is simple - subdomain cannot exist. Only then we will be able to use search feature.

It is a bit stupid i think; i tried to do something to totaly remove or block vista from appending a suffix to local-looking requests, but it is not possible.
If I set this field empty (that would be the best solution) it's going back again after restart ... lovely.

Gavin, as you wrote, you dont have this problem. I bet that your default suffix is set to mshome.net too, and whatever your ISP did, you should experience the same thing as few people, including me, did.

Anyway, here are some guides how to deal with this suffix thing (how to change it):

Using unqualified domain names (names with no dots)
http://www.simpledns.com/kb.aspx?kbid=1120

(There are useful links describing)

Comment 7

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This is a mass search for bugs that are in the Firefox General component, are
UNCO, and have not been changed for 800 days and have an unspecified version. 

Reporter, can you please update to Firefox 3.6.10, create a fresh profile,
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles, and test again. If you
still see the bug, please update this bug. If the issue is gone, please set the
resolution to RESOLVED > WORKSFORME.