ALL HTTPS SITES LOAD EXTREMELY SLOW - WHY?
I am running windows xp + firefox 17 - any https site loads very slowly , while in other browsers no problem at all.
All Replies (20)
Hi,
Please see this.
Thanks for your quick response - let me add that this https issue refers also to firefox 14 , 15 , 16 and now 17. There is no problems with other sites. I disabled my antivirus just to make sure , got the same result. Regarding how slow , well it takes about 20 seconds while using Google's Chrome takes less than a second. I guess , this issue should be dealt with. Thanks.
You can reset Firefox and check. If the problem persists you can try right-clicking and Toggle the key network.http.spdy.enabled to false in about:config.
The Config Descriptions add-on adds helpful source comments in about:config.
Thanks again. Oddly enough , I toggled "network.http.spdy.enabled" to false , restarted firefox and it worked perfectly. To make sure that was the cause , I toggled the same entry back to true , surprisingly , it still works fine now. Could you please elaborate on that?
If you reset Firefox or otherwise cleared the cache/preferences, the SPDY setting may have been saved/stored. You can try to Clear Now the Cache and Site Preferences with Time range to clear set to Everything via Tools (Alt + T) > Clear Recent History and check each time after enabling and disabling.
Thanks , indeed , cleared recent history + cache + browsing - restarted firefox - now back to square 1 , same problem plus toggling between false and true makes no difference(network.http.spdy.enabled) , now I am really out of focus........................
Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?
A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
Also, you can try opening the Web Console in an empty tab, select all under Net and Logging and deselect JS and CSS and then enter a site. You can also expand the console and post a screenshot here.
Once you've done this, attach the saved screenshot file to your forum post by clicking the Browse... button below the Post your reply box. This will help us to visualize the problem.
Modified
Thanks again , I disabled my antivirus + firewall , no luck. Attached is the web console relating to one of the secured sites. Hope you will find it useful to solve the problem......Thanks
There doesn't seem to be an issue in fetching content/resources. So the delay could be in rendering the content. If you haven't reset Firefox you can do so, right-click and Toggle the key plugins.click_to_play to true in about:config, and also deselect Use hardware acceleration when possible in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > Advanced > General, and restart Firefox - a quick way to restart Firefox is to press Shift + F2, type restart and Enter. Also, you can check if there is a chrome folder in the Firefox Profile Folder and rename it, or move it after exiting Firefox.
To open the profile folder via Firefox: Help (Alt + H) > Troubleshooting Information > Show Folder.
Firefox Profile Folder & Files
If the problem persists it would be a good idea to check in Windows Safe Mode with Networking.
It is fairly safe to assume that there is no problem in the networking part.
Modified
Well ,l did reset firefox but still no luck. It seems to me you are quite right it has something to do with content fetching. I still would like to try something regarding certificate validation , it's a long shot but what the heck , let's try - will write as soon as I am done - Thanks
That would be a good start :) Also, certificate validation and OCSP validation happens at the start before the connection is established and therefore before fetching content. So usually status messages (including OK) in the Web Console would be empty/pending, or take a long time to appear which would be a useful clue. Likewise with DNS. In this case the console would be empty, or would start populating only after the name is resolved which again is a useful hint.
That was exactly my intention , as you rightly mentioned , certificate validation takes place at the start before connection is established - that is what got me thinking I should try that angle. Well it goes like that - under view certificate>servers , I opened properties of that site's certificate and on details exported it and then while on that same certificate , imported the file I had exported - restarted firefox and , what can I say , it worked fine. I did the same for the rest and it worked as well. I am trying to figure out why it happened , since actually , there should be no difference between the two......................
I'm not sure but it could be because the validation is cached. What happens if you restart again?? Not a restart, but full exit of Firefox and then starting normally.
You are absolutely right , just to make sure I restarted firefox over and over again , next step cleared cache/history/browsing etc. well , it works just fine Later on , I shall examine certificate details more closely to determine whether there is any difference at all between the two - next step will be to delete those certificates and restart again see what happens...........
Ok , turned out that in that case I should deselect OCSP confirmation !!!
Thanks for the update :)
Thank you for your kind help , appreciate it !!!
No problem :)
Oh , I have been meaning to ask you - I have posted this feedback regarding a certain problem loading some sites who contain charts - you will see what kind of chart I refer to (example) - it is a comparison chart but this site won't load correctly in any version of firefox - what is your opinion?