Fix unresponsive Firefox

[NeuroticFish]

To the mods: I don't know where to put this. I feel it's somehow forum related, since one has to use a browser to get here.

I don't know if people having troubles will get here, still, it worth a try.
I've noticed today the Firefox has become unresponsive while browsing the forum. The problem was Firefox (and not the extensions or anything).
And the fix is easy, I've found it on twitter: https://twitter.com/jbaiter_/status/1481543050438619139

If you're having trouble with #firefox, try disabling HTTP3 in about:config with the 'network.http.http3.enabled' key. After setting this and restarting Firefox everything worked again.

So:
about:config
Set network.http.http3.enabled to false.
Restart Firefox (may need to do it with task manager).


Update: this fix is obsolete now. New Firefox version was released (96.0.1), it has the proper fix, you better update to that one (and revert the http3 setting to default)
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/96.0.1/releasenotes/

[1714769579]

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[1714769579]

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[ABCbits]

Fortunately HTTP/3 is still on draft, so disabling it won't affect your experience since most website don't bother support protocol which is in draft state.

P.S. If you use Tor Browser (which based on Firefox), you don't need to do anything since it's disabled by default.

[psycodad]

Thanks a lot for the information, had a hanging Firefox after it was updated in my Debian Linux. Your trick fixed it.

Fortunately HTTP/3 is still on draft, so disabling it won't affect your experience since most website don't bother support protocol which is in draft state.

<snip>

It is still a draft, though the Wikipedia page for it states:

..
As of January 2022, the HTTP/3 protocol is still officially an Internet Draft, but is already supported by 73% of running web browsers,[3] and according to W3Techs 24% of the top 10 million websites
..

[ABCbits]

Fortunately HTTP/3 is still on draft, so disabling it won't affect your experience since most website don't bother support protocol which is in draft state.

<snip>

It is still a draft, though the Wikipedia page for it states:

..
As of January 2022, the HTTP/3 protocol is still officially an Internet Draft, but is already supported by 73% of running web browsers,[3] and according to W3Techs 24% of the top 10 million websites
..

I checked the source (https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/ce-http3) and looks like HTTP/3 adoption rise quickly in last 11 months. Last time i heard news about HTTP/3, the adoption was lower than 1%. But since i never have problem accessing website which use HTTP/3 protocol, looks like they offer backward compatibility so i never noticed it.

[Lucius]

I haven't had any problems with the forum even though I use Firefox. It is possible that the thing is in the FF version, and for me, the last update was to 96.0 1-2 days ago.

[NeuroticFish]

I haven't had any problems with the forum even though I use Firefox. It is possible that the thing is in the FF version, and for me, the last update was to 96.0 1-2 days ago.

You may have been lucky. If you have the patience, you can read at least 2 Bugzilla pages:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1749910
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1749908

They tell from alternate solutions (I didn't know about) from the issue being fixed in the last release (I don't think that most of the affected browsers will get that update automatically, since the users don't know what to do).

Clearly sooner or later this http3 setting will need re-enabled. Maybe not today, but still... (I will wait until I am 100% sure I have a new version running.)

[dkbit98]

Do we have any stats for browser that is mostly used on Bitcointalk forum?
We are probably following global trend with chrome browser.

I didn't noticed the some unresponsiveness happening in Tor browser, but I guess they are not following Firefox updates strictly and they made changes on their own.
In last few months I have been testing Firefox fork called Librewolf, that is focused more on better privacy, telemetry is removed, uBlock Origin is added by default, and cookies are deleted on shutdown.
https://librewolf.net/

[Findingnemo]

Do we have any stats for browser that is mostly used on Bitcointalk forum?
We are probably following global trend with chrome browser.

Probably Google chrome followed by TOR, is it possible to identify from which browser they are browsing a website?

I am using the chromium which is just from google chrome but for me it works little faster and because it doesn't have any auto download feature and also open source which claims to be no tracking of data even though I don't trust the words completely it works faster and smoother.

[Pmalek]

I use a few different computers and laptops depending on where I am and what I do.
On one of them, I have noticed issues with Firefox. That has been going on for months and is not related to the forum only. I see if on all websites.

It happens when I boot up that computer and open Firefox. It literally needs several minutes before it can access the sites I am trying to load.
It's the only laptop I have that still doesn't have a SSD. Not sure if that is part of the problem or if it is some Firefox features. The same thing doesn't happen with Chrome for example. It's usable as soon as the browser loads.

I will try to disable the http3 thingy and see if that helps in anyway.

@NeuroticFish
Btw, have you mentioned this to theymos? Do it.

[NeuroticFish]

@NeuroticFish
Btw, have you mentioned this to theymos? Do it.

I don't really think I should. It's a problem of Firefox (not bitcointalk) and the Mozilla devs know about it - may have already fixed it too: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1749910

[ABCbits]

Do we have any stats for browser that is mostly used on Bitcointalk forum?
We are probably following global trend with chrome browser.

Probably Google chrome followed by TOR, is it possible to identify from which browser they are browsing a website?

All browser send string called "User Agent" which usually contain browser type, browser version and OS. So it's possible to make such stats if such data is collected and processed.

[UmerIdrees]

To the mods: I don't know where to put this. I feel it's somehow forum related, since one has to use a browser to get here.

I don't know if people having troubles will get here, still, it worth a try.
I've noticed today the Firefox has become unresponsive while browsing the forum. The problem was Firefox (and not the extensions or anything).
And the fix is easy, I've found it on twitter: https://twitter.com/jbaiter_/status/1481543050438619139

If you're having trouble with #firefox, try disabling HTTP3 in about:config with the 'network.http.http3.enabled' key. After setting this and restarting Firefox everything worked again.

So:
about:config
Set network.http.http3.enabled to false.
Restart Firefox (may need to do it with task manager).

I did not have any issue with my version of firefox on my laptop however I will have these settings saved with me , so if I experience the same problem I may disable the http3.

However, the problem you were facing was for your overall experience with firefox, and not just appeared when you tried to open the bitcointalk forum. Right?

[BitMaxz]

To confirm I tried both enabling and disable this network.http.http3.enabled


But both are working fine. What I think is your problem is related to your browser and not all are affected.
What I would like to suggest is if you or someone still having this issue try to reinstall the firefox or it might be a DNS issue using VPN or changing DNS might solve this issue.

[PrimeNumber7]

Do we have any stats for browser that is mostly used on Bitcointalk forum?
We are probably following global trend with chrome browser.

Probably Google chrome followed by TOR, is it possible to identify from which browser they are browsing a website?

All browser send string called "User Agent" which usually contain browser type, browser version and OS. So it's possible to make such stats if such data is collected and processed.

If this data is collected, it is only stored for a couple of weeks:

Page-by-page access logs and most other detailed logging

|

A few weeks

This data is also supplied by the user, and it is trivial for the user to provide arbitrary data.

[NotATether]

I've also noticed my Firefox failing to load all websites recently. It only occurs in Firefox but not in other browsers, so I didn't notice it much as I'm a Chrome user. But resetting (they call it "refreshing") the browser makes the issue temporarily go away.

[Findingnemo]

Do we have any stats for browser that is mostly used on Bitcointalk forum?
We are probably following global trend with chrome browser.

Probably Google chrome followed by TOR, is it possible to identify from which browser they are browsing a website?

All browser send string called "User Agent" which usually contain browser type, browser version and OS. So it's possible to make such stats if such data is collected and processed.

I don't know that, its the lesson for today from bitcointalk.

So they theymos can collect the data and complie a list of most used browser if he wants even though if he doesn't want to make it public to every user to have such data. Just got curious after knowing this.

[NeuroticFish]

So they theymos can collect the data and complie a list of most used browser if he wants

Any website can do that. Some do, some don't. Imho it matters more for websites with more complicated UI/functionalities which may also need different coding for different browsers.

Just got curious after knowing this.

I would not be surprised that we're basically withing the percents from everywhere on the internet.
So I'd start with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php


Firefox 96.0.1 was released yesterday, fixing the problem.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/96.0.1/releasenotes/

Improvements to make the parsing of content-length headers more robust (bug 1749957)

[ABCbits]

All browser send string called "User Agent" which usually contain browser type, browser version and OS. So it's possible to make such stats if such data is collected and processed.

If this data is collected, it is only stored for a couple of weeks:

Page-by-page access logs and most other detailed logging

|

A few weeks

This data is also supplied by the user, and it is trivial for the user to provide arbitrary data.

True, but usually only bot which use modified User Agent. Almost no human bother change "User Agent" of their browser, so if theymos collect such data (Even only for 2 weeks), the stats should be fairly accurate.

So they theymos can collect the data and complie a list of most used browser if he wants

Any website can do that. Some do, some don't. Imho it matters more for websites with more complicated UI/functionalities which may also need different coding for different browsers.

With Chrome dominance, many website (especially with small resource/budget) these days don't bother support different browser (especially Firefox).

[NeuroticFish]

With Chrome dominance, many website (especially with small resource/budget) these days don't bother support different Firefox.

Last time I needed that I had to check for IE vs other browsers  , quite some years ago 
On the other hand, I've noticed now and then services that work better on Chrome than on Firefox. It may depends on what (functions) they use, it may mean that some did care to make it more compatible and some didn't.

But it has just occurred to me that since now Edge is also Chromium... you may be indeed right...

[Findingnemo]

With Chrome dominance, many website (especially with small resource/budget) these days don't bother support different Firefox.

Last time I needed that I had to check for IE vs other browsers  , quite some years ago 
On the other hand, I've noticed now and then services that work better on Chrome than on Firefox. It may depends on what (functions) they use, it may mean that some did care to make it more compatible and some didn't.

But it has just occurred to me that since now Edge is also Chromium... you may be indeed right...

Even I have firefox and updates it all the time but still I don't feel it is so smooth like Chrome or Opera, so I just go with Google even though I know they aree tracking our data but it doesn't real bother me too much because I am using it for surfing normal websites even bitcointalk too and when I needed privacy just go with Tor. Internet Explorer? Anyone really using it in 2023? because even on my good spec device it takes atleast a minute to open up the homepage.