Google blocked in Firefox version 3, other pages fine, works in other browsers

Question

After some time of using Firefox (v.3x) I can no longer access google.com. The page to google.com never loads either from address bar or quick search.

If I restart Firefox it works again for a while, then starts timing out again.

I can usually access mail, calendar, and documents no problem. But I can't access iGoogle or the default search page.

There is no problem if I use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer when Firefox is having the issue.

Other pages are fine. This is peculiar and particular to google.com it seems. I will try upgrading to Firefox version 5, though that doesn't seem like a solution. We'll see!

Answer 1

I would upgrade if at all possible, not just for sake of possibly solving this issue but also for security.

If you are determined to use Firefox 3, then all I can recommend is reinstalling FF. This extension appears to be able to back up basically everything, so if you don't want to lose anything, install it and making a backup first.

Also, have you installed any extensions that could be causing this issue?

HTH

Answer 2

Start Firefox without extensions Help->Restart with Addons Disabled

Run that for a while, and if you don't get the problem, it is one of the extensions. You can then enable extensions one by one to see which one it is.

The likely culprits are those that block sites intentionally, such as Adblock or Ghostery.

The other place to look would be your AV - many of these will do a phishing or malware lookup on any URL you go to. This may have been installed as a plugin in firefox

Answer 3

Have you or your addon tinkered with firefox config network settings? If you enabled too many concurrent connections (>6) to google they might start to hang.