Cannot navigate to www.dogpile.com on Firefox Quantum while tethering to an Android smartphone mobile hot spot
I am using an Android smartphone as my Wifi hotspot. For some reason, when my laptop tries accessing www.dogpile.com (a search engine I've used for over a decade) nothing appears in Firefox. I can navigate on my laptop successfully to any other website I've tried. My laptop is running Windows 8.1, and I'm using Firefox Quantum now.
Is there a Firefox setting, or maybe someone could say "you need to change X setting on your Android smartphone's Wifi hotspot" ?
Just to be clear: I have an android smart phone that has a full internet data plan; and the phone has the capability of being set up to perform as a WiFi hotspot for up to 10 devices; and I'm only trying to connect one device -- my Windows 8.1 laptop -- to my smartphone to get internet access -- and it's working fine -- EXCEPT I cannot navigate to www.dogpile.com. And I know www.dogpile.com is up and running -- I have verified that with www.isitdownrightnow.com.
All Replies (4)
Did you check to see what kinda data plan and wifi setting you have? Sounds like a Android problem not a FF problem.
WestEnd said
Did you check to see what kinda data plan and wifi setting you have? Sounds like a Android problem not a FF problem.
Okay, took your advice that it might be an Android problem. Called the phone vendor (Consumer Cellular). The Rep in their tech support got an identical-model smartphone, an Alcatel 'Kora' model, and the tech support Rep successfully navigated to Dogpile.com using the Chrome Browser. So I tried accessing Dogpile.com with Chrome on my Kora phone - it failed. The Rep then had me do a 'master reset' of my Kora phone (resets it to factory defaults) and *still* I have no access to Dogpile.com on any browser.
I'm a software engineer of 20+ years and I've written code for server-side, middleware and client-side web stuff and I'm wondering if this Kora smartphone has some kind of 'block table' -- maybe in firmware? or in this version of Android used by Consumer Cellular? that blocks some sites, ie. I've only discovered Dogpile.com is not accessible - there may be other sites being blocked too.
Note that Dogpile.com is *a competitor* to google.com -- and google makes Android -- maybe Larry and Serge et al at Google did something to block Dogpile.com? And Consumer Cellular left that in their version of Android they install on their phones?
Microsoft used to do that kind of anti-competitor stuff all the time.
If I can't figure this out I'm returning the Alcatel Kora phone to the store.
But I'm not sure if other Android versions on any replacement phone I buy will have the same problem.
WestEnd said
Did you check to see what kinda data plan and wifi setting you have? Sounds like a Android problem not a FF problem.
I forgot to mention this. I relocated from Silicon Valley (the San Francisco Bay Area in California) to Florida this week and *have not* changed my smartphone SIM card to allow me to have a Florida phone number. My smartphone's SIM card is correct for the San Francisco Bay Area market of Consumer Cellular (where I bought the phone in late November 2017, 15 days ago), and not here in Florida. You can make calls and browse most web sites, but maybe there's some kind of weird esoteric bug with *some* web sites -- Dogpile.com being one of them -- that show up when you have an out-of-area SIM card in this Alcatel Kora smartphone. Just speculating here, but chime in if this rings a bell please!
Sorry, actually this is not the forum for Android could you please ask here : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/mobile
This is for Desktop, Tablet.
Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.