Is this with all websites, some, a few?

There are several things that can cause this. Including a bad connection, the website itself, protection programs . . . .

This download manager works separately from the browser. The browser tells it what to download, and off it goes.

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org It is a powerful modern download accelerator and organizer for Windows and Mac.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.

• http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/
• http://www.7tutorials.com/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

It is possible that your firewall or other security software 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 install for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process. See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/server-not-found-connection-problem
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Firewalls
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-problems-connecting-websites-after-updating