Problem with FireFox browser (BUT, it turns out, not with PF)

[phinds]

I get PF to work just fine with Chrome and Edge but it's a mess with Firefox. I've cleared the cache, closed Firefox and opened it again. No joy. Anyone else using Firefox here and NOT having problems?

Also, FYI, I'm using Windows 10 and Firefox says I have the latest version

 

[fresh_42]

This looks like a memory problem to me. FF requires quite a lot of space (at least when I last checked) since it runs in only one instance; other than Chrome which runs in several threads.

I got those badly compiled images, too, and changed to Chrome.

 

[BillTre]

I am using Firefox on Apple's OS 13.4.1.
Its working fine.

 

[phinds]

This looks like a memory problem to me. FF requires quite a lot of space (at least when I last checked) since it runs in only one instance; other than Chrome which runs in several threads.

I got those badly compiled images, too, and changed to Chrome.

Well, I appreciate the reply and suggestion, BUT ... I opened a new instance of Firefox and still have the same problem. Total memory usage is reported at 39%, of which Chrome is using more that Firefox. I do only see one entry in the task list for Firefox, even though I've got two instances open, but I'm not sure that's meaningful since it happens the same for ALL apps that I open multiple instances of

 

[phinds]

Firefox just updated this morning so I"m just about positive that the problem is somehow with Firefox and Windows 10 even though PF is the ONLY web site that is now screwed up with Firefox.

 

[phinds]

I Just tried opening 20 different tabs in Firefox. Memory usage is way up but zero issues with any of the sites in the 20 tabs.

EDIT: AH HA --- I just found another site that has the same problem - https://www.woodtalkonline.com/ does the same thing, so whatEVER the issue is, it is not with PF itself.

Sorry to even bother you all.

 

[fresh_42]

Well, I appreciate the reply and suggestion, BUT ... I opened a new instance of Firefox and still have the same problem. Total memory usage is reported at 39%, of which Chrome is using more that Firefox. I do only see one entry in the task list for Firefox, even though I've got two instances open, but I'm not sure that's meaningful since it happens the same for ALL apps that I open multiple instances of
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Yes, but FF runs its 366MB in 5 processes (av. 73 MB) and Chrome in 12 (av. 38 MB). I don't know whether it's the graphic card/chip, the RAM, or that annoying large file where Windows swaps its memory to (forgot its name) that causes the problems, I only know that they have basically been gone when I changed from FF to Chrome.

 

[phinds]

Wow. Thanks @fresh_42 --- I opened a clean instance of Firefox with ONLY PF as a single tab and it works just fine. I used to be able to use PF in Firefox with easily a dozen tabs open, but I'm guessing that the new update to it has changed something in the memory / thread allocation with Windows 10.

 

[jack action]

The "mess" you refer to is one or more CSS file that hasn't loaded. Going to the Web Developer Tools (F12), you can look at the network monitor (Ctrl+Shift+E) and see what is loaded or not and how. You may have to reload the page once the network monitor opened.

 

[Tom.G]

that annoying large file where Windows swaps its memory to (forgot its name) that causes the problems,

That is called the Paging File (or sometimes the Swap File) and is used for Virtual Memory.

I'm running an even older version of Windows (XP) and had to hack the registry to to expand the Paging File size to 20MB (from 4MB?, which was limited by the user-interaction interface). That increase helped eliminate several problems.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[pbuk]

This looks like a CDN (content delivery network) issue. Most websites with significant traffic use a CDN: PF uses Cloudflare (you can find this out by looking at the domain records).

Due to issues with the way the CDN and your browser caches and distributes content this can happen with any browser, it can usually be resolved by forcing a full reload of the page bypassing the browser cache (although if the CDN still has an issue it might not work).

You can force a full reload on FF (and most other browsers) in Windows by holding the Ctrl key while you hit the refresh button.

 

[phinds]

Yeah, that sounds right as I have found that the problem comes and goes without my doing anything. Makes sense that the problem is not entirely on my end but since more than one site shows it, it's not on PF's end either.

Thanks

 

[fresh_42]

Yeah, that sounds right as I have found that the problem comes and goes without my doing anything. Makes sense that the problem is not entirely on my end but since more than one site shows it, it's not on PF's end either.

Thanks

I mainly got this error on Wikipedia. Maybe the number of links is part of the reason that causes the problem.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Cloudflare

How exactly does Cloudflare work? Is it just a set of servers that one rents, or is it a giant squid cache that sits between the world and the "real" site - i.e. www.foo.com directs to Cloudflare which caches from www.real_foo.com

 

[jack action]

How exactly does Cloudflare work? Is it just a set of servers that one rents, or is it a giant squid cache that sits between the world and the "real" site - i.e. www.foo.com directs to Cloudflare which caches from www.real_foo.com

It is basically a proxy server:

• You point your domain name towards Cloudflare;
• Cloudflare gets your content from your server and serves it from its own servers (where your site can be cached) around the world;
• As a bonus, it is supposed to protect against DDoS attacks.

Cloudflare acts as a reverse proxy for web traffic. It supports web protocols including SPDY and HTTP/2, QUIC, and support for HTTP/2 Server Push.[27] As of 2023, Cloudflare handles an average of 45 million HTTP requests per second.

Cloudflare provides DDoS mitigation services that protect customers from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

In 2010, Cloudflare launched a Content Distribution Network (CDN) service.

From personal experience, I stopped using it when my website was sending way too many Error 522.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Thanks. So essentially a giant Squid. Maybe a Jules Verne sized Squid.

 

[weirdoguy]

Firefox generally has become a mess, I had to change to Opera, after 11+ years of using Firefox...

 

[Tom.G]

Yea, here is the history I found when it blew up a few years ago.

1) There were many contributors to the code, several contributors required an attribution in the source code showing their name.
2) The server that had the source code publically available was down for a while.
3) One of the code contributors apparently got upset about his name not being publicized.
4) Said contributor successfully sued the maintainer (chief author) and took over the Firefox project.
5) The Firefox project fell apart over the next several months and is now backed by Mozilla.org.

As a somewhat related follow-on, from the ashes of Firefox arose the MyPal browser. This lasted a few years (I'm using MyPal to type this post) and now seems to be lightly supported.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[pbuk]

or is it a giant squid cache that sits between the world and the "real" site

Yes, but it's not actually Squid of course, Cloudflare uses proprietory software.

- i.e. www.foo.com directs to Cloudflare which caches from www.real_foo.com

Normal terminology: Cloudflare pulls from one or more origin server(s). The origin server(s) is (are) usually configured as www.foo.com with its (their) IP addresses set in the Cloudflare configuration rather than real_foo.com (although you can do that, or more likely origin.foo.com).

 

[DaveC426913]

Yeah, Jack Action called it. What's "making a mess" here is the CSS file(s). The site probably works fine, it's just not pretty. The CSS did not load (which is fine, HTML pages will load with or without their CSS).

(Dunno what the mean age is here on PF but) this is exactly what the world wide internet "superhighway" looked like back in the early 90s. Text and hyperlinks and that's it. If you were super lucky, the page might have one, maybe two, thumbnail-sized images.

Good times, good times. *sniff*

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