458545 - Loading Java applet failed after bug 423377 connection pref changes

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Networking: HTTP, defect)

Description

[Aaron]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3

Greetings!

I have wanted to play a MMORPG game that is powered by a Java applet and a red "x" would pop up and at the bottom of the left corner, it would say, " Loading Java applet failed..." or " Java applet notinited." I have even contacted the technical support team from the MMORPG game and they have also suspected that it could a bug in Firefox 3. :(

This issue has never happened to me when I used to use Firefox 2. In fact, I ran a little experiment, and it seems this issue still does not happen when using Firefox 2.

I encountered the issue at http://www.runescape.com, selecting Account Management, and finally selecting Read Messages.

I have made sure my Java was working properly and made sure I had the latest version.

I also encounter this issue when I visit http://www.funorb.com. :(

What should I do to resolve this issue? 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Visit www.runescape.com or www.funorb.com
2. Select Account Management
3. Select Read Messages
Actual Results:  
After I performed the steps, the Java applet has failed to load once again with a small red "x" and the Loading Java applet message at the bottom left of the browser

Expected Results:  
There should have been two boxes, one asking me for my username and the other asking me for my password, with a picture of a big lock at the right with the company creator's name in the middle of the lock.

To view how the software should load, visit www.runescape.com and press the green "Log in" button. It should be below the advertisement. The same thing can be done at http://www.funorb.com

Comment 1

[Aaron]

I have forgotten one step in regards on how to reproduce the issue, the steps are:

1. Visit www.runescape.com or www.funorb.com
2. Place the cursor on Account and select Account Management
3. Select Read Messages

Comment 2

[Aaron]

Attachment: The actual issue

This is the issue on www.runescape.com after selecting Read Messages

Comment 3

[Aaron]

Attachment: The actual issue on FunOrb

This is the issue again on www.funorb.com

The steps to reproduce this issue on FunOrb is slightly different. The steps are:

1. Go to www.funorb.com
2. Place the cursor under "Help" and select Customer Support
3. Select "Forums and Your Inbox"
4. Select "Your Message Centre"
5. Click on the "Account Management" link on the article
6. Click on "Read Messages"

Comment 4

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

I see the problem, but it's unclear whether it's a site issue or a Firefox problem.

Comment 5

[Eddy Nigg (StartCom)]

I don't know if it has been reported already, but the file manager of Webmin also doesn't load. I'm using FF2 for this specific applet for now.

Comment 6

[Aaron]

I'm pretty sure this is a Firefox related issue since this issue has never occurred in Firefox 2. This seems like the only workaround for this issue, but only until mid December since Firefox 3 was released. Java is correctly installed on my PC and I have tested too, and it seems to be functioning correctly. But this isn't the case, as you have seen. :(

Comment 7

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Did you already tried the Java6 U10 (Realeas candidate) with the new npapi plugin instead of the old npoji one ?

Comment 8

[Aaron]

Yes, indeed I have also tried the Java 6 U10 but I'm not sure about the new npapi plugin part? If you mean clean uninstall and re install, then yes, I have tried that.

Comment 9

[Eddy Nigg (StartCom)]

(In reply to comment #7)
Yes

Comment 10

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Confirmed on Windows XP/Vista. I tested this on the presence of the "Do you want to run the application" dialog.
Works: 2008031800
Fails: 2008031801
Regression window is http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsquery.cgi?module=PhoenixTinderbox&date=explicit&mindate=2008-03-17+23%3A00&maxdate=2008-03-18+02%3A00
which seems to point to Bug 423377.
And really, if I decrease the value of the pref it works.

Comment 11

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

I know at least of one other case, where there was a problem with putting images on the right spot of the page. Sometimes they didn't load at all. I don't know the bug number anymore nor the site.

Comment 12

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

(In reply to comment #11)
>
I finally found it, it was bug 448022.

Comment 13

[Aaron]

Lowering the value? :s

I really don't know very much about coding but I do not see why I should change
the coding provided with Firefox 3 since the coding that was taken from Firefox
2 should have made everything work as it should in any other Firefox version.
:( I have a strong belief that maybe some coding was missing and started this
issue, since this issue was way back in 3.0.

Comment 14

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

(In reply to comment #13)
> I really don't know very much about coding but I do not see why I should
> change the coding provided with Firefox 3 since the coding that was taken
> from Firefox 2 should have made everything work as it should in any other
> Firefox version. :( I have a strong belief that maybe some coding was
> missing and started this issue, since this issue was way back in 3.0.

That's what Ria was talking about: changing preference values back to what they were in Firefox 2. I can also confirm that changing those values seems to make the jagex login (funorb/runescape) work.

Java in general works fine in Firefox 3, for example games at pogo.com. I have no idea why the number of persistent connections would affect our ability to load this particular app correctly.

Eddy: it would be great if you could test reverting the prefs changed in bug 423377 and try the applet mentioned in comment 5 again. If that doesn't help please file a separate bug on it.

Comment 15

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

FWIW, the funorb/runescape login app works with network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server set to 4, but not 5 (nor the Firefox 3 default of 6). You don't have to go all the way back to the 2 allowed in Firefox 2 for this particular app.

Eddy's app in comment 5 might require a different setting if it's even the same problem.

Comment 16

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

It could be a server issue (it rejects more than 4 connections).
Using more than 2 is against rfc2616
"Clients that use persistent connections SHOULD limit the number of
   simultaneous connections that they maintain to a given server. A
   single-user client SHOULD NOT maintain more than 2 connections with
   any server or proxy"

Comment 17

[Aaron]

(In reply to comment #14)
> (In reply to comment #13)
> > I really don't know very much about coding but I do not see why I should
> > change the coding provided with Firefox 3 since the coding that was taken
> > from Firefox 2 should have made everything work as it should in any other
> > Firefox version. :( I have a strong belief that maybe some coding was
> > missing and started this issue, since this issue was way back in 3.0.
> 
> That's what Ria was talking about: changing preference values back to what they
> were in Firefox 2. I can also confirm that changing those values seems to make
> the jagex login (funorb/runescape) work.
> 
> Java in general works fine in Firefox 3, for example games at pogo.com. I have
> no idea why the number of persistent connections would affect our ability to
> load this particular app correctly.
> 
> Eddy: it would be great if you could test reverting the prefs changed in bug
> 423377 and try the applet mentioned in comment 5 again. If that doesn't help
> please file a separate bug on it.

(In reply to comment #15)
> FWIW, the funorb/runescape login app works with
> network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server set to 4, but not 5 (nor the
> Firefox 3 default of 6). You don't have to go all the way back to the 2 allowed
> in Firefox 2 for this particular app.
> 
> Eddy's app in comment 5 might require a different setting if it's even the same
> problem.

Thanks for confirming this Daniel. :)

It would be great if I knew how to change the preferences though, since I know nothing about coding at all. :P

If changing the preferences work, then I would be happy to mark this as Resolved after completing the Preference changing steps. :)

(In reply to comment #16)
> It could be a server issue (it rejects more than 4 connections).
> Using more than 2 is against rfc2616
> "Clients that use persistent connections SHOULD limit the number of
>    simultaneous connections that they maintain to a given server. A
>    single-user client SHOULD NOT maintain more than 2 connections with
>    any server or proxy"

Hmm.. I quite don't understand after reading this comment. Does this mean that if it higher than 2, then there will be more conflict to this problem?

Comment 18

[Eddy Nigg (StartCom)]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Eddy's app in comment 5 might require a different setting if it's even the same
> problem.

It didn't help. I'll open a new bug since it seems not to be related.

Comment 19

[Eddy Nigg (StartCom)]

Created bug 458614.

Comment 20

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

(In reply to comment #17)
> > FWIW, the funorb/runescape login app works with
> > network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server set to 4, but not 5
> 
> It would be great if I knew how to change the preferences though, since I know
> nothing about coding at all. :P

No coding required, but do ONLY what I write and nothing more:

1) enter "about:config" (w/out quotes) in the location bar
2) you should get a page with a warning about voiding your warranty. That's partly a joke--Mozilla offers no warranty--but you can mess things up so change ONLY what is in these steps. Click the button.
3) in the "Filter" field enter "max-persist". the list should shrink to two items.
4) double-click on network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server
5) in the prompt dialog change "6" to "4" (or "2" if you want the Firefox 2 setting).

> If changing the preferences work, then I would be happy to mark this as
> Resolved after completing the Preference changing steps. :)

Don't do that. Please leave the bug open since everyone else using those sites will have the same problem. We need to figure out if we're doing something wrong or if we need to work with the site to fix a bad assumption on their part. If your personal issue is resolved, though, feel free to ignore the bug and continue on as a satisfied Firefox user :-)

> > Using more than 2 is against rfc2616
> > "[...]" 
> 
> Hmm.. I quite don't understand after reading this comment. Does this mean that
> if it higher than 2, then there will be more conflict to this problem?

Don't worry about it, that comment was not directed at you but was part of a discussion on "what do we do now?". Matthias is re-raising an argument from bug 423377 that the change violates a published specification for internet communication. The limit we exceed is a recommendation, not a requirement, and several competing browsers also use more than two persistent connections.