What is the name and address of the web site?

The web site in question is www.denverpost.com

I had no problem. What kind of issues were you having?

I have asked this question before. I thought it was tied to the website of my local newspaper since that seemed to be where it happened all the time. Tonight I was not on that site. I was in Tools>Add-ons, trying to switch from Plugins to Extensions when it locked up. Symptoms are the current tab will scroll up and down but no links work. No other tabs can be accessed. Tab cannot be closed. Tab shows "Connecting" with rotating busy icon. Firefox must be killed with the task manager. People have suggested deleting cookies and history - no effect unless I'm supposed to perform that action every few seconds in which case it's useless. Another suggestion was to deselect "Use hardware acceleration" in Tools>Options. Also no apparent effect. I thought it might be related to Flash because I was getting a lot of messages about a plugin container not working for that. I disabled Flash and got the "Video without flash" add-on (what a POS!) which doesn't appear to work at all. Any help would be appreciated. I'm getting tired of killing Firefox a dozen times (or more) per day and may have to investigate another browser (Ugh!).

In the scenario which seems to work reliably I have a tab open to http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv-listings#filters=hd , a tab to http://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/2014/12/02/daily/ , a tab to http://www.nytcrossword.com/2014/12/1202-14-new-york-times-crossword.html , and a tab to a local jpg file. Then open one to the denverpost.com, click on entertainment then comics. Start going through the comics one at a time from A to Z. Before you get 1/3 through the list it will lockup (unless it's something peculiar to my machine which nobody has pointed out before).

Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter. Under the main banner, press the button; Copy Text To Clipboard.. Then in the reply box at the bottom of this page, do a right click in the box and select Paste. This will show us your system details. No Personal Information Is Collected.

Please add this program to your Firefox. SUMO Troubleshooter {web link} This will provide Firefox troubleshooting data to Mozilla web sites. No personal information is listed.

The troubleshooting information will help further investigate if there is a malicious add on that may be interfering with the loading of webpages. However in order to make sure that it is not an issue with add ons it is possible to start Firefox in Safe Mode and follow the same steps that you see the page lock up:

• Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 35.0.1 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0 Multiprocess Windows: 0/1

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days

All Crash Reports

Extensions

Name: Adblock Plus Version: 2.6.7 Enabled: true ID: {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

Name: Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon Version: 0.9.2 Enabled: true ID: adblockpopups@jessehakanen.net

Name: Flashblock Version: 1.5.18 Enabled: true ID: {3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a}

Name: Image and Flash Blocker Version: 0.7 Enabled: true ID: imgflashblocker@shimon.chohen

Name: Troubleshooter Version: 1.1a Enabled: true ID: troubleshooter@mozilla.org

Name: Webroot Filtering Extension Version: 1.0.2.42 Enabled: true ID: webrootsecure@webroot.com

Name: Consumer Input Version: 9948 Enabled: false ID: ConsumerInput@Compete

Name: TopArcadeHits Version: 1.0 Enabled: false ID: {0113D088-8ED1-468C-B225-585A9C53B5E3}

Name: Video WithOut Flash Version: 2.0.2 Enabled: false ID: vwof@drev.com

Graphics

Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 Adapter Drivers: nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um Adapter RAM: 2048 Device ID: 0x1287 DirectWrite Enabled: false (6.2.9200.16571) Driver Date: 7-2-2014 Driver Version: 9.18.13.4052 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 0/1 Basic (OMTC) Subsys ID: 730b19da Vendor ID: 0x10de WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: true AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureContentBackend: cairo AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Important Modified Preferences

browser.cache.disk.capacity: 0 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 3 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20150122214805 browser.startup.homepage: http://search.conduit.com/?ctid=CT3310511&octid=CT3310511&SearchSource=61&CUI=UN32943663548444182&UM=2&UP=SPB3F4BFFF-D3A browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20150122214805 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 35.0.1 dom.mozApps.used: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 35.0.1 font.internaluseonly.changed: false gfx.direct2d.disabled: true gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 layers.acceleration.disabled: true media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate: 1423268150 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version: 1.3 media.gmp-manager.lastCheck: 1424822928 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1424822927 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.npqtplugin: 2 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_bgimages: false print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_colorspace: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_command: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_duplex: 185 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_evenpages: true print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_footercenter: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_footerright: &D print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_headercenter: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_headerright: &U print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_in_color: true print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_oddpages: true print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_orientation: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_paper_name: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_plex_name: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_resolution: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_resolution_name: print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_reversed: false print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_to_file: false print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_EPSON_NX420_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 4 storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1423033684

Important Locked Preferences

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: true Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.7 Version in use: 4.10.7

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.17.2 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.17.2 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.17.2 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.17.2 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.17.2 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.17.2 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.17.2 Version in use: 3.17.2

Experimental Features

guigs2 -- It looks like it might be OK in Safe Mode. I got much further along in my test scenario than I would have expected and it didn't lock up.

I see you have; Flashblock Version: 1.5.18 Enabled Image and Flash Blocker Version: 0.7 Enabled

As a test, please disable one of them.

Is this the home page you want? Some have had issues.

browser.startup.homepage: http://search.conduit.com/?ctid=CT3310511&octid=CT3310511&SearchSource=61&CUI=UN32943663548444182&UM=2&UP=SPB3F4BFFF-D3A

FredMcD -- I disabled Flash Blocker V0.7 and it appears to work OK. I didn't go all the way through my test scenario but I did make it halfway without a lockup. A couple of times it appeared to lockup as usual but it recovered after about 30 seconds or so. As for the home page, that Sweetpacks crap has snuck in a couple of times. It's a pain in the ass to get rid of so I just ignore it. Besides, the only time Firefox restarts is after I kill it (due to lockup) or the machine loses power (not often) so the only thing I see is the restore tab.

You may have ad / mal-ware. Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Bookmark and use this; Mozilla Search Reset {web link} This add-on is very simple: on installation, it backs up and then resets your search preferences and home page to their default values, and then uninstalls itself. This affects the search bar, URL bar searches, and the home page.

Settings Guard for Firefox {web link} Detects and resets changes to settings that are frequently done by add-ons and application installers.

FredMcD -- I assume you're referring to the Sweetpacks P.O.S. that attached itself to Firefox as I have seen it referred to as malware elsewhere. If it is, how did it get past Webroot? And why does it only affect the Denver Post web site? I visit literally dozens of web sites on any given day and that's the only one that seems to cause the problem. Which leads to -- how do I get rid of it? As I recall my previous attempts to do so have been less than 100% successful.

Does webroot have any rules for unecrypted pages?

guigs2 -- Beats me, I didn't write it.

Observation Probably worth noting this user was posting about a separate problem yesterday in an adjacent post

The marked solution was using Windows Safe mode, obviously not a permanent solution and possibly the two problems could be related.

• edit see also /questions/1016528

Questions

1. Is this current problem seen in Windows Safe Mode ?
   Or does it go away in Windows Safemode ?
2. Did you find a better solution to the last problem ?
   Did you discover what was causing that ?

john99 -- You don't know WTF you're talking about. That "adjacent post" was by someone named vornez and has nothing to do with my question. Try to keep up, dude.

There is clearly an ongoing malware issue here with sweetpacks, conduit and toparcade hits having already been mentioned. There may be other unwanted software it would be good practice to uninstall using the Windows control panel and Firefox's Addon manager any obvious dodgy software or Add-ons, then do scans with multiple and fully up to date tools.

• See Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page

Please post back to say how you get on including what you have now tried and, what was found. It is not good practice to ignore unwanted software or malware and hope it goes away, because if anything it tends to get worse.

You may have stumbled accross news headlines* on Ramnit "botnet" with sugestions to check out Get Safe Online or Cyber Streetwise

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
• AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
• Hitman Pro
• ESET Online Scanner

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

• Conduit
  This is a specific article on conduit removal.
  • http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-conduit-apps-search-and-toolbar/
  • It is slightly dated, and for instance shows the orange Firefox button top left on screenshots, whereas the menu button is now top right.
• Sweetpacks
  • http://deletemalware.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/how-to-remove-start-sweetpacks-and.html
  • From that article I note advice

    remove the following entries:
    SweetPacks
    SweetPacks Toolbar
    Updater by Sweetpacks

• Toparcadehits, quoting another post I made

  This is probably adware that is annoying enough for some people to consider it malware. See
  http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-the-top-arcade-hits-virus/
  Firefox "Infected" By "Toparcadehits" Extension?
  http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2711837

sgpettis said

john99 -- You don't know WTF you're talking about. That "adjacent post" was by someone named vornez and has nothing to do with my question. Try to keep up, dude.

Sorry sgpettis, I got the link wrong, and confused with another thread.

I however stand by the fact that a lot of what you mention relates to software generally regarded as unwanted by many users, and sometimes referred to as malware etc.