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Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 29th 16, 06:20 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
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Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows?
http://i.cubeupload.com/P0jKaY.jpg

In my hosts file are entries to block sites that show up as connections
that Firefox makes, even when Firefox is in SAFE MODE.

How can that be possible?

1. I add an entry to the Windows hosts file and SAVE it.
2. I start Firefox in SAFE mode.
3. Firefox _still_ shows up as "ESTABLISHED" to that rogue site.

How can that possibly be that Firefox doesn't respect the hosts file?

Where do these rogue connections come from anyway?
http://i.cubeupload.com/T274r0.jpg



------------------ Here are just the first six of amazonaws --------
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-25-189-162.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-26-2-199.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-148-80-75.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-112-246.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-123-171.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-69-9-44.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox safemode
------------------ Here are just the first six of cloudfront --------
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-10.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-129.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-141.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-205.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-28.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-7.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
------------------
  #2  
Old June 29th 16, 06:52 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Stormin' Norman
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Posts: 1,877
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:20:17 +0000 (UTC), Jannah Jankowski
wrote:

Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows?
http://i.cubeupload.com/P0jKaY.jpg

In my hosts file are entries to block sites that show up as connections
that Firefox makes, even when Firefox is in SAFE MODE.

How can that be possible?

1. I add an entry to the Windows hosts file and SAVE it.
2. I start Firefox in SAFE mode.
3. Firefox _still_ shows up as "ESTABLISHED" to that rogue site.

How can that possibly be that Firefox doesn't respect the hosts file?

Where do these rogue connections come from anyway?
http://i.cubeupload.com/T274r0.jpg



------------------ Here are just the first six of amazonaws --------
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-25-189-162.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-26-2-199.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-148-80-75.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-112-246.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-123-171.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-69-9-44.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox safemode
------------------ Here are just the first six of cloudfront --------
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-10.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-129.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-141.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-205.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-28.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-7.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
------------------


This might be of help:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1011327
  #3  
Old June 29th 16, 09:33 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
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Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:52:44 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

This might be of help:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1011327


Thank you.

I normally see you when I lurk on a.home.repair, so
it is nice to see you here.

I saw that article titled major bug, firefox ignores
the hosts file. It was confusing because to people it
seemed Firefox was caching an old dns but they closed
the thread before anyone summarized the correct solution.

I found something similar he
At what point does Firefox read/reread the hosts file?
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewto...?f=7&t=2565953

That file talks about the setting "network.dnsCacheExpiration".


  #4  
Old June 29th 16, 10:53 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Stormin' Norman
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Posts: 1,877
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 20:33:17 +0000 (UTC), Jannah Jankowski wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:52:44 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

This might be of help:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1011327


Thank you.

I normally see you when I lurk on a.home.repair, so
it is nice to see you here.

I saw that article titled major bug, firefox ignores
the hosts file. It was confusing because to people it
seemed Firefox was caching an old dns but they closed
the thread before anyone summarized the correct solution.

I found something similar he
At what point does Firefox read/reread the hosts file?
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewto...?f=7&t=2565953

That file talks about the setting "network.dnsCacheExpiration".


Interesting, I have not used that group, maybe I will take a look, sounds right up my alley.

As for Firefox, did you try disabling the keyword search as mentioned at the link I posted above?
  #5  
Old June 30th 16, 05:45 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 21:53:51 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

Interesting, I have not used that group, maybe I will take a look,
sounds right up my alley.

As for Firefox, did you try disabling the keyword search as mentioned at
the link I posted above?


The group alt.home.repair fun group to follow, especially a religious guy
named "Chris" who goes by the nick of "Stormin' Norman".
http://tinyurl.com/alt-home-repair

As for Firefox, I disabled over 30 things, so time will tell if that
worked.
  #6  
Old June 30th 16, 05:53 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Thu, 30 Jun 2016 04:45:14 +0000, Jannah Jankowski wrote:

The group alt.home.repair fun group to follow, especially a religious
guy named "Chris" who goes by the nick of "Stormin' Norman".
http://tinyurl.com/alt-home-repair

As for Firefox, I disabled over 30 things, so time will tell if that
worked.


Op. I mean Stormin Mormon
  #7  
Old June 29th 16, 06:57 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Java Jive
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 391
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:20:17 +0000 (UTC), Jannah Jankowski
wrote:

How can that possibly be that Firefox doesn't respect the hosts file?


It's probably more that the network services more generally don't
respect the hosts file until they are restarted. Does hosts get
respected after a reboot?
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Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
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  #8  
Old June 29th 16, 09:45 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 18:57:18 +0100, Java Jive wrote:

It's probably more that the network services more generally don't respect
the hosts file until they are restarted. Does hosts get respected after a
reboot?


I think Firefox has a dns cache expiration which I need
to set to zero before it will "reread" the DNS cache...

See:
At what point does Firefox read/reread the hosts file?
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewto...?f=7&t=2565953

That file talks about the setting "network.dnsCacheExpiration"
which I will play with but the main problem is to stop
Firefox from going to rogue web sites first.

  #9  
Old June 29th 16, 10:00 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

| I think Firefox has a dns cache expiration which I need
| to set to zero before it will "reread" the DNS cache...
|

I think you're right. I have all 3 dnsCache* values set
to 0. I ran into the problem awhile back when I couldn't
reach a couple of news sites for several days. They had
changed their IP. I don't remember what the default
value is but it shouldn't be more than maybe 12 hours.

This is assuming you put 127.0.0.1 localhost as the first
line in your HOSTS file, and that the site you tested
with matched the subdomain string as well as the domain
string. In other words, 127.0.0.1 abcdef.somewhere.com
will only block abcdef.somewhere.com. It won't block
abcdefg.somewhere.com or www.somewhere.com.

Also, a side note: The Stormin' in home repair is
Stormin' Mormon, not Norman.


  #10  
Old June 29th 16, 10:21 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:00:24 -0400, Mayayana wrote:

I think you're right. I have all 3 dnsCache* values set
to 0. I ran into the problem awhile back when I couldn't reach a couple
of news sites for several days. They had changed their IP. I don't
remember what the default value is but it shouldn't be more than maybe
12 hours.


The question is *what* to set them to so that
the DNS cache is consulted *every* time Firefox
needs to resolves a domain to an IP address.

Here is what an about:config shows for "network.dns":
network.dnsCacheExpirationGracePeriod;60
network.dnsCacheExpiration;60
network.dnsCacheEntries;400
network.dns.offline-localhost;true
network.dns.localDomains;
network.dns.ipv4OnlyDomains;
network.dns.get-ttl;true
network.dns.disablePrefetch;false
network.dns.disableIPv6;false
network.dns.blockDotOnion;true

Which settings are the important ones that cause
Firefox to check DNS *every* time?

This is assuming you put 127.0.0.1 localhost as the first
line in your HOSTS file, and that the site you tested with matched the
subdomain string as well as the domain string. In other words, 127.0.0.1
abcdef.somewhere.com will only block abcdef.somewhere.com. It won't
block abcdefg.somewhere.com or www.somewhere.com.


Yes. This is the first non-comment line in the
WINDOWS HOSTS file:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Also, a side note: The Stormin' in home repair is
Stormin' Mormon, not Norman.


OOops.

  #11  
Old June 29th 16, 10:50 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

These 3 relate to cahing:
| network.dnsCacheExpirationGracePeriod;60 [set to 0]
| network.dnsCacheExpiration;60 [set to 0]
| network.dnsCacheEntries;400 [set to 0]

| network.dns.offline-localhost;true ?
| network.dns.localDomains; ?
| network.dns.ipv4OnlyDomains;
| network.dns.get-ttl;true ?
| network.dns.disablePrefetch;false [I set this to true. Prefetch is a
ridiculous,
privacy-compromising function to download files from links
at
pages you visit, just in case you decide to click those
links!]

| network.dns.disableIPv6;false [probably fine]
| network.dns.blockDotOnion;true ??
|


  #12  
Old June 29th 16, 07:17 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Ralph Fox
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Posts: 474
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:20:17 +0000 (UTC), Jannah Jankowski wrote:

Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows?
http://i.cubeupload.com/P0jKaY.jpg

In my hosts file are entries to block sites that show up as connections
that Firefox makes, even when Firefox is in SAFE MODE.

How can that be possible?

1. I add an entry to the Windows hosts file and SAVE it.
2. I start Firefox in SAFE mode.
3. Firefox _still_ shows up as "ESTABLISHED" to that rogue site.



Here is a likely reason.

If you want to block Firefox from opening a connection, you need to
find which domain name Firefox used -- which may not be the same
as the domain name showing in Process Hacker.

i) The same server can have multiple domain names. For example,
"paint.net" and "ip-50-63-202-26.ip.secureserver.net" go to
the same server at IP address 50.63.202.26

ii) Process Hacker does not show which domain name Firefox used.
Process Hacker gets the IP address, (say) 50.63.202.26, and
does a reverse-DNS lookup to get one of the domain names.
That domain name may not be the same as the domain name which
Firefox used.

iii) Adding a domain name (say) "ip-50-63-202-26.ip.secureserver.net"
to your hosts file can only block Firefox when Firefox uses
that same domain name to open a connection. It will not block
Firefox when Firefox uses another one of the server's domain
names, (say) "paint.net", to open a connection.



How can that possibly be that Firefox doesn't respect the hosts file?

Where do these rogue connections come from anyway?
http://i.cubeupload.com/T274r0.jpg



------------------ Here are just the first six of amazonaws --------
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-25-189-162.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-26-2-199.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-148-80-75.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-112-246.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-123-171.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-69-9-44.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox safemode
------------------ Here are just the first six of cloudfront --------
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-10.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-129.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-141.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-205.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-28.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-7.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
------------------



--
Kind regards
Ralph
  #13  
Old June 29th 16, 09:17 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
David E. Ross[_2_]
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Posts: 1,035
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On 6/29/2016 10:20 AM, Jannah Jankowski wrote:
Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows?
http://i.cubeupload.com/P0jKaY.jpg

In my hosts file are entries to block sites that show up as connections
that Firefox makes, even when Firefox is in SAFE MODE.

How can that be possible?

1. I add an entry to the Windows hosts file and SAVE it.
2. I start Firefox in SAFE mode.
3. Firefox _still_ shows up as "ESTABLISHED" to that rogue site.

How can that possibly be that Firefox doesn't respect the hosts file?

Where do these rogue connections come from anyway?
http://i.cubeupload.com/T274r0.jpg



------------------ Here are just the first six of amazonaws --------
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-25-189-162.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-52-26-2-199.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-148-80-75.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-112-246.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-213-123-171.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox
safemode
127.0.0.1 ec2-54-69-9-44.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com # firefox safemode
------------------ Here are just the first six of cloudfront --------
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-10.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-129.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-141.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-205.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-28.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
127.0.0.1 server-52-84-24-7.sea32.r.cloudfront.net # firefox safemode
------------------


Post your question (and any other Firefox qeustions) to the
mozilla.support.firefox newsgroup on the news.mozilla.org news server.
Accounts at news.mozilla.org are free and quite easy to setup.

This might be bug #705483 at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=705483. If not, consider
submitting a new bug report. The product would be Core; the component
would be Networking.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/.

Donald Trump says he will create many jobs if he
is elected President. To find out about Trump's
ability to create jobs, ask those who are now
unemployed because Trump's Atlantic city hotel
and casino went bankrupt.
  #14  
Old June 29th 16, 09:48 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Jannah Jankowski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016 13:17:59 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

Post your question (and any other Firefox qeustions) to the
mozilla.support.firefox newsgroup on the news.mozilla.org news server.
Accounts at news.mozilla.org are free and quite easy to setup.

This might be bug #705483 at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=705483. If not, consider
submitting a new bug report. The product would be Core; the component
would be Networking.


I did post the question there.

They told me firefox has nothing to do with HOSTS lookups
(which is essentially bad information because firefox
caches old lookups in its own dns cache).

They did suggest the 30 steps here to stop Firefox
from connecting to rogue web sites:

How to stop Firefox from making rogue connections
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...ic-connections

  #15  
Old June 29th 16, 10:21 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Why does Firefox not respect the HOSTS file in Windows

| They did suggest the 30 steps here to stop Firefox
| from connecting to rogue web sites:
|
| How to stop Firefox from making rogue connections
|
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...ic-connections
|

I think Ed Mullen misunderstood your question. That page
is about shutting off all the various functions that have
been added to make FF go online without asking. It's not
about blocking IP addresses.


 




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