516150 - Frequent Server Not Found Errors

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Jeff K]

User-Agent:       Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en) Presto/2.2.15 Version/10.00
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

Frequent (5% of all pages)Server Not Found errors when trying to navigate to a new page via link, bookmark or direct typing in of address. Seems to be random as to which pages cause the problem. Clicking the "Refresh" button at the top of the browser causes the page to load properly. Hitting "Try Again" just reproduces the error screen.

This happens on a fresh installation of any 3.5 build, without any addons. It is also occurring on two computers, one with XP and another with Vista. This does not happen with other browsers on the same computers including Chrome, IE8, or Opera 9 or 10.

Reverting back to a Firefox 3.1 build solves the problem.

Disabling DNS prefetching does not resolve the issue. Nor does changing the IPV6 setting to true.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Click bookmark/link or type address to go to a website.
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
Get "Server Not Found" error screen

Expected Results:  
Expect the selected website to load properly

Comment 1

[hayarms]

I confirm this bug. I haven't tried with firefox 3.1, but with firefox 3.5.x I get quite frequent "Server not found" errors every now and then on Windows XP.

On Linux firefox doesn't have this problem and everything works as expected. Other browsers on Windows XP works as expected (tried IE8 and Chrome) .

I use a Netgear DG834Gv4 router.

What router do you have Jeff?

Marcello

Comment 2

[Jeff K]

I'm using a Netgear WGR614 v4 router with the latest firmware. The problem for me occurs with the XP desktop (wired) and the vista laptop, wireless.

Comment 3

[pak514]

Hi Jeff, I use the same router and I'm experiencing the same symptoms. My problem doesn't occur on other browsers.

Comment 4

[Jeff K]

I still haven't found an answer or a solution. Going back to previous versions of Firefox (3.0), using IE8, Google Chrome, or Opera 10 all work fine. I'd rather not use an outdated Firefox. The problem still persists in the latest Firefox release.

Comment 5

[SteelPeg]

Same here since updating to 3.5 build:
On my Sony lappy running Vista; wired or wireless, on home network/work network/or out-of-town hotel network;  add-ons on or off; all possible configurations of prefetch on/off & IPV6 true/false - nothing seems to work and it's very frustrating.

Friend of mine has Toshiba laptop running Win7 and has same problem.
Both of us are using Kaspersky - and Kaspersky sometimes runs "funny" with certain programs. I haven't tested turning off Kaspersky yet as I'd rather keep hitting Refresh rather than losing my computer to viruses/etc during testing!

Comment 6

[Jeff K]

At this point it looks like I have found a solution.

Switching to OpenDNS seems to have resolved the problem. I was using the default DNS from Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia). Since making the change I have only had one "server not found" error in the last few days (with several hours of internet use).

You can go to OpenDNS.com and follow the instructions. I'm just using the free version.

It still strikes me as odd that this only occurred with FF 3.5 and not with 3.0, Opera 10 or IE8.

Also, my web page loading time has noticeably increased after switching.