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Firefox hanging



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 13th 18, 12:40 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK

Ads
  #2  
Old August 13th 18, 12:48 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Firefox hanging

wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK


The OS throttles outgoing incomplete connections
(according to this).

https://serverfault.com/questions/51...-event-message

They interpret this as some malware (a spambot) is trying
to open connections somewhere, and the activity is preventing
your other (normal) network traffic.

Maybe then, Firefox hangs as it's getting queued on outgoing
connections or something ?

You need to send a scanning crew on board, and
figure out where it's hiding :-)

Paul
  #3  
Old August 13th 18, 02:03 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 19:48:03 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK


The OS throttles outgoing incomplete connections
(according to this).

https://serverfault.com/questions/51...-event-message

They interpret this as some malware (a spambot) is trying
to open connections somewhere, and the activity is preventing
your other (normal) network traffic.

Maybe then, Firefox hangs as it's getting queued on outgoing
connections or something ?

You need to send a scanning crew on board, and
figure out where it's hiding :-)

Paul


That is what I suspect but the Norton scan did not show anything and I
think they swallowed Malwarebytes.
  #4  
Old August 13th 18, 02:37 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Firefox hanging

wrote:
On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 19:48:03 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK

The OS throttles outgoing incomplete connections
(according to this).

https://serverfault.com/questions/51...-event-message

They interpret this as some malware (a spambot) is trying
to open connections somewhere, and the activity is preventing
your other (normal) network traffic.

Maybe then, Firefox hangs as it's getting queued on outgoing
connections or something ?

You need to send a scanning crew on board, and
figure out where it's hiding :-)

Paul


That is what I suspect but the Norton scan did not show anything and I
think they swallowed Malwarebytes.


Do you have any offline discs ?

The Kaspersky one didn't seem to be working right
the last time I tried it. If you had an older
Kaspersky disc, it's possible it will still contact
the server and get 100MB of definitions. At least
that one, it detects EICAR test string.

Bitdefender has one (offline disc), but it didn't leave a strong
impression when I tried it.

Adwcleaner used to be produced by one guy. Then it
changed hands and one of the AV companies got it.
One of the things that does, is scan prefs.js for
stuff (settings that don't belong). It's supposed
to remove adware.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

When a larger company gets it, that's when the tool
will gain "ambitions". And whatever advantage there
was to it being an independent operation would be lost.

There are also scanners I used to use, where you'd
swear all they were doing was wasting CPU cycles.

*******

Microsoft also makes an offline version of Windows Defender
for occasions like this. But... forget it. It's kinda
a version-locked thing. You would not expect help for
a WinXP user. A bridge too far.

Paul
  #5  
Old August 13th 18, 03:23 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 21:37:55 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 19:48:03 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK

The OS throttles outgoing incomplete connections
(according to this).

https://serverfault.com/questions/51...-event-message

They interpret this as some malware (a spambot) is trying
to open connections somewhere, and the activity is preventing
your other (normal) network traffic.

Maybe then, Firefox hangs as it's getting queued on outgoing
connections or something ?

You need to send a scanning crew on board, and
figure out where it's hiding :-)

Paul


That is what I suspect but the Norton scan did not show anything and I
think they swallowed Malwarebytes.


Do you have any offline discs ?

The Kaspersky one didn't seem to be working right
the last time I tried it. If you had an older
Kaspersky disc, it's possible it will still contact
the server and get 100MB of definitions. At least
that one, it detects EICAR test string.

Bitdefender has one (offline disc), but it didn't leave a strong
impression when I tried it.

Adwcleaner used to be produced by one guy. Then it
changed hands and one of the AV companies got it.
One of the things that does, is scan prefs.js for
stuff (settings that don't belong). It's supposed
to remove adware.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

When a larger company gets it, that's when the tool
will gain "ambitions". And whatever advantage there
was to it being an independent operation would be lost.

There are also scanners I used to use, where you'd
swear all they were doing was wasting CPU cycles.

*******

Microsoft also makes an offline version of Windows Defender
for occasions like this. But... forget it. It's kinda
a version-locked thing. You would not expect help for
a WinXP user. A bridge too far.

Paul


I reloaded IE8 trying to fix that problem and it ran some kind of
microsoft scan about 20 minutes but it was using a 2010 definition I
imagine.
This is strange. If it starts slowing down I can close out FF, restart
it and it works OK again. It really just seems to be bad on things
that are highly ad supported like Facebook or a boat forum I look at.
I think you are right about an ad bot.
I am going to turn on that connection monitor in FF and see if I can
find the culprit.
  #6  
Old August 13th 18, 04:13 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Firefox hanging

gfretwell wrote:

This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK


Did you install extensions into your Firefox profile?

In Google Chrome, extensions can continue to run in the background when
you "exit" Firefox. I disabled that featu when I exit an app, I
expect it to actually unload from memory (and why I'm still a bit ****ed
how Google lets apps continue running in the background in Android). If
I "close" an app, I expect it to also exit or unload (unless it is just
a frontend GUI to a background process or service that I know about).
I don't know if Mozilla copied this "feature" of Chrome: there's just
too many settings in about:config for me to waste digging in there.

Did you check if Windows is using a proxy? Control Panel - Internet
Options - Connections - LAN settings. While Firefox can have its own
internally configured proxy setup (menu - Options - General - Network
Proxy), it usually uses the system settings; however, check what Firefox
is configured to use. Since both Firefox and IE are affected, and if a
proxy snuck in, tis likely the global Internet Options settings are used
by both and a proxy is defined there. In Windows' settings, make sure
all the LAN settings, including for proxy, are unchecked (not used).

Some programs use their own proxy. Some anti-virus programs work by
have the proxy settings point at their own local proxy, so all network
traffic goes through the AV's proxy. It's been a long time since I've
seen that method used. Usually the AV uses a transparent proxy to
interrogate network traffic. I have a video stream capture tool
(Applian Replay Media Capture which is a rebranded Jaksta) that uses a
proxy to capture video streams (and doesn't require to play the entire
video in the web browser, just to find where is the source and begin
capturing it as though it were a separate web browser). I've seen where
the AV or RMC proxy has become unresponsive which killed all web traffic
(which to many users is the Internet but the web is just part of it). I
can kill the proxy for an AV and get it reloaded (but sometimes it's
just easier to reboot) and killing the RMC proxy is easy. Killing the
proxy won't work if the OS is still configuring to direct network
traffic through the proxy (that isn't running anymore).

Did you check your 'hosts' file (that it only has an uncommented entry
for localhost to go to 127.0.0.1)?

Did you try booting Windows in its safe mode with networking and then
testing the web browsers?
  #7  
Old August 13th 18, 04:15 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Firefox hanging

wrote:

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 21:37:55 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 19:48:03 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK

The OS throttles outgoing incomplete connections
(according to this).

https://serverfault.com/questions/51...-event-message

They interpret this as some malware (a spambot) is trying
to open connections somewhere, and the activity is preventing
your other (normal) network traffic.

Maybe then, Firefox hangs as it's getting queued on outgoing
connections or something ?

You need to send a scanning crew on board, and
figure out where it's hiding :-)

Paul

That is what I suspect but the Norton scan did not show anything and I
think they swallowed Malwarebytes.


Do you have any offline discs ?

The Kaspersky one didn't seem to be working right
the last time I tried it. If you had an older
Kaspersky disc, it's possible it will still contact
the server and get 100MB of definitions. At least
that one, it detects EICAR test string.

Bitdefender has one (offline disc), but it didn't leave a strong
impression when I tried it.

Adwcleaner used to be produced by one guy. Then it
changed hands and one of the AV companies got it.
One of the things that does, is scan prefs.js for
stuff (settings that don't belong). It's supposed
to remove adware.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

When a larger company gets it, that's when the tool
will gain "ambitions". And whatever advantage there
was to it being an independent operation would be lost.

There are also scanners I used to use, where you'd
swear all they were doing was wasting CPU cycles.

*******

Microsoft also makes an offline version of Windows Defender
for occasions like this. But... forget it. It's kinda
a version-locked thing. You would not expect help for
a WinXP user. A bridge too far.

Paul


I reloaded IE8 trying to fix that problem and it ran some kind of
microsoft scan about 20 minutes but it was using a 2010 definition I
imagine.
This is strange. If it starts slowing down I can close out FF, restart
it and it works OK again. It really just seems to be bad on things
that are highly ad supported like Facebook or a boat forum I look at.
I think you are right about an ad bot.
I am going to turn on that connection monitor in FF and see if I can
find the culprit.


You never mentioned what add-ons you've installed into IE and Firefox.
Did you try disabling them all or, at least, trying loading Firefox in
its safe mode?
  #8  
Old August 13th 18, 04:42 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 22:13:11 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

gfretwell wrote:

This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK


Did you install extensions into your Firefox profile?

In Google Chrome, extensions can continue to run in the background when
you "exit" Firefox. I disabled that featu when I exit an app, I
expect it to actually unload from memory (and why I'm still a bit ****ed
how Google lets apps continue running in the background in Android). If
I "close" an app, I expect it to also exit or unload (unless it is just
a frontend GUI to a background process or service that I know about).
I don't know if Mozilla copied this "feature" of Chrome: there's just
too many settings in about:config for me to waste digging in there.

Did you check if Windows is using a proxy? Control Panel - Internet
Options - Connections - LAN settings. While Firefox can have its own
internally configured proxy setup (menu - Options - General - Network
Proxy), it usually uses the system settings; however, check what Firefox
is configured to use. Since both Firefox and IE are affected, and if a
proxy snuck in, tis likely the global Internet Options settings are used
by both and a proxy is defined there. In Windows' settings, make sure
all the LAN settings, including for proxy, are unchecked (not used).

Some programs use their own proxy. Some anti-virus programs work by
have the proxy settings point at their own local proxy, so all network
traffic goes through the AV's proxy. It's been a long time since I've
seen that method used. Usually the AV uses a transparent proxy to
interrogate network traffic. I have a video stream capture tool
(Applian Replay Media Capture which is a rebranded Jaksta) that uses a
proxy to capture video streams (and doesn't require to play the entire
video in the web browser, just to find where is the source and begin
capturing it as though it were a separate web browser). I've seen where
the AV or RMC proxy has become unresponsive which killed all web traffic
(which to many users is the Internet but the web is just part of it). I
can kill the proxy for an AV and get it reloaded (but sometimes it's
just easier to reboot) and killing the RMC proxy is easy. Killing the
proxy won't work if the OS is still configuring to direct network
traffic through the proxy (that isn't running anymore).

Did you check your 'hosts' file (that it only has an uncommented entry
for localhost to go to 127.0.0.1)?

Did you try booting Windows in its safe mode with networking and then
testing the web browsers?


Doesn't appear to be a proxy I can see in those options but Paul may
be onto something. This thing has settled down but next time it does
happen I am going to start going bot hunting because I think something
is coming to me from an ad supported site that is clogging up the up
link pipe. Once it gets clogged up I drag down to a crawl.
I am not sure the IE thing has anything to do with this because it may
have been broke forever. I never use it. There are plenty of hits on
the bug I have that point to Norton. With all of the stuff going on,
turning off my virus scanner did not seem like a good idea. I had the
Tivo app going and I got about 50 intrusion alerts from that yesterday
(event viewer). I am not sure if that was just a fluke or if it was a
tip of how we got into this mess in the first place. I blew that away.
This may all be academic at a certain point because time is catching
up on this old XP machine and I may be going up to 7, kicking and
screaming all the way. I may have a guy sending me 7 pro in the box.
  #9  
Old August 13th 18, 04:58 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 22:15:01 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

wrote:

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 21:37:55 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 19:48:03 -0400, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK

The OS throttles outgoing incomplete connections
(according to this).

https://serverfault.com/questions/51...-event-message

They interpret this as some malware (a spambot) is trying
to open connections somewhere, and the activity is preventing
your other (normal) network traffic.

Maybe then, Firefox hangs as it's getting queued on outgoing
connections or something ?

You need to send a scanning crew on board, and
figure out where it's hiding :-)

Paul

That is what I suspect but the Norton scan did not show anything and I
think they swallowed Malwarebytes.

Do you have any offline discs ?

The Kaspersky one didn't seem to be working right
the last time I tried it. If you had an older
Kaspersky disc, it's possible it will still contact
the server and get 100MB of definitions. At least
that one, it detects EICAR test string.

Bitdefender has one (offline disc), but it didn't leave a strong
impression when I tried it.

Adwcleaner used to be produced by one guy. Then it
changed hands and one of the AV companies got it.
One of the things that does, is scan prefs.js for
stuff (settings that don't belong). It's supposed
to remove adware.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

When a larger company gets it, that's when the tool
will gain "ambitions". And whatever advantage there
was to it being an independent operation would be lost.

There are also scanners I used to use, where you'd
swear all they were doing was wasting CPU cycles.

*******

Microsoft also makes an offline version of Windows Defender
for occasions like this. But... forget it. It's kinda
a version-locked thing. You would not expect help for
a WinXP user. A bridge too far.

Paul


I reloaded IE8 trying to fix that problem and it ran some kind of
microsoft scan about 20 minutes but it was using a 2010 definition I
imagine.
This is strange. If it starts slowing down I can close out FF, restart
it and it works OK again. It really just seems to be bad on things
that are highly ad supported like Facebook or a boat forum I look at.
I think you are right about an ad bot.
I am going to turn on that connection monitor in FF and see if I can
find the culprit.


You never mentioned what add-ons you've installed into IE and Firefox.
Did you try disabling them all or, at least, trying loading Firefox in
its safe mode?


I looked and they are all pretty much disabled anyway (shockwave,
silverlight, Java development Acrobat etc).
  #10  
Old August 13th 18, 06:16 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Firefox hanging

gfretwell wrote:

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 22:15:01 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

You never mentioned what add-ons you've installed into IE and
Firefox. Did you try disabling them all or, at least, trying loading
Firefox in its safe mode?


I looked and they are all pretty much disabled anyway (shockwave,
silverlight, Java development Acrobat etc).


Disabling an add-on does not remove its settings (that you can see in
about:config). While safe mode is a troubleshooting step by disabling
all the add-ons, that doesn't change back to default any settings that
were changed by the add-ons. That's why the next suggestion is to to
create a new profile and load that (make it the default) when you load
Firefox.

Sometimes uninstalling the add-ons will remove their settings but not
always. I've found lingering settings from add-ons that were
uninstalled long ago when I happened to do some cleanup in about:config.
Since all those add-ons are disabled, you aren't using them, so why not
uninstall them. If that still doesn't help, try using a new profile.
  #11  
Old August 13th 18, 06:18 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Firefox hanging

wrote:

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 22:13:11 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

gfretwell wrote:

This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK


Did you install extensions into your Firefox profile?

In Google Chrome, extensions can continue to run in the background when
you "exit" Firefox. I disabled that featu when I exit an app, I
expect it to actually unload from memory (and why I'm still a bit ****ed
how Google lets apps continue running in the background in Android). If
I "close" an app, I expect it to also exit or unload (unless it is just
a frontend GUI to a background process or service that I know about).
I don't know if Mozilla copied this "feature" of Chrome: there's just
too many settings in about:config for me to waste digging in there.

Did you check if Windows is using a proxy? Control Panel - Internet
Options - Connections - LAN settings. While Firefox can have its own
internally configured proxy setup (menu - Options - General - Network
Proxy), it usually uses the system settings; however, check what Firefox
is configured to use. Since both Firefox and IE are affected, and if a
proxy snuck in, tis likely the global Internet Options settings are used
by both and a proxy is defined there. In Windows' settings, make sure
all the LAN settings, including for proxy, are unchecked (not used).

Some programs use their own proxy. Some anti-virus programs work by
have the proxy settings point at their own local proxy, so all network
traffic goes through the AV's proxy. It's been a long time since I've
seen that method used. Usually the AV uses a transparent proxy to
interrogate network traffic. I have a video stream capture tool
(Applian Replay Media Capture which is a rebranded Jaksta) that uses a
proxy to capture video streams (and doesn't require to play the entire
video in the web browser, just to find where is the source and begin
capturing it as though it were a separate web browser). I've seen where
the AV or RMC proxy has become unresponsive which killed all web traffic
(which to many users is the Internet but the web is just part of it). I
can kill the proxy for an AV and get it reloaded (but sometimes it's
just easier to reboot) and killing the RMC proxy is easy. Killing the
proxy won't work if the OS is still configuring to direct network
traffic through the proxy (that isn't running anymore).

Did you check your 'hosts' file (that it only has an uncommented entry
for localhost to go to 127.0.0.1)?

Did you try booting Windows in its safe mode with networking and then
testing the web browsers?


Doesn't appear to be a proxy I can see in those options but Paul may
be onto something. This thing has settled down but next time it does
happen I am going to start going bot hunting because I think something
is coming to me from an ad supported site that is clogging up the up
link pipe. Once it gets clogged up I drag down to a crawl.
I am not sure the IE thing has anything to do with this because it may
have been broke forever. I never use it. There are plenty of hits on
the bug I have that point to Norton. With all of the stuff going on,
turning off my virus scanner did not seem like a good idea. I had the
Tivo app going and I got about 50 intrusion alerts from that yesterday
(event viewer). I am not sure if that was just a fluke or if it was a
tip of how we got into this mess in the first place. I blew that away.
This may all be academic at a certain point because time is catching
up on this old XP machine and I may be going up to 7, kicking and
screaming all the way. I may have a guy sending me 7 pro in the box.


Any site can bog down the client (web browser) by getting stuck in a
Javascript loop or waiting for content that doesn't get delivered (for
example, by an adblocker that blocks content the script is waiting for,
like more scripts from off-domain). You could try disabling Javascript
when you visit the target site to do another download; however, that
will likely make the page unusable or the download link won't work.
  #12  
Old August 13th 18, 07:18 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

On Mon, 13 Aug 2018 00:18:55 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

wrote:

On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 22:13:11 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

gfretwell wrote:

This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.
Event recorder shows this
Warning TCP/IP has reached the security limit...
Error ...DCOM got error the service cannot be started because it is
not enabled or no enabled devices attempting to start gupdate with
argument /comsvc

Another alarming info message is remote console app started. I thought
I had that turned off.

To make matters worse Internet Exploder is broke too so I don't really
have a way of comparing them. IE8 says it thinks I have a firewall
setting wrong but I turned Norton and Window firewall off still no
joy.

I am starting to think I have been hacked or that Firefox is the
virus.
My next step may be to unplug the other drives to be sure they are not
infected and putting the bug back on, Format C: and reload with an
even older image from a remote drive. See how long that runs OK

Did you install extensions into your Firefox profile?

In Google Chrome, extensions can continue to run in the background when
you "exit" Firefox. I disabled that featu when I exit an app, I
expect it to actually unload from memory (and why I'm still a bit ****ed
how Google lets apps continue running in the background in Android). If
I "close" an app, I expect it to also exit or unload (unless it is just
a frontend GUI to a background process or service that I know about).
I don't know if Mozilla copied this "feature" of Chrome: there's just
too many settings in about:config for me to waste digging in there.

Did you check if Windows is using a proxy? Control Panel - Internet
Options - Connections - LAN settings. While Firefox can have its own
internally configured proxy setup (menu - Options - General - Network
Proxy), it usually uses the system settings; however, check what Firefox
is configured to use. Since both Firefox and IE are affected, and if a
proxy snuck in, tis likely the global Internet Options settings are used
by both and a proxy is defined there. In Windows' settings, make sure
all the LAN settings, including for proxy, are unchecked (not used).

Some programs use their own proxy. Some anti-virus programs work by
have the proxy settings point at their own local proxy, so all network
traffic goes through the AV's proxy. It's been a long time since I've
seen that method used. Usually the AV uses a transparent proxy to
interrogate network traffic. I have a video stream capture tool
(Applian Replay Media Capture which is a rebranded Jaksta) that uses a
proxy to capture video streams (and doesn't require to play the entire
video in the web browser, just to find where is the source and begin
capturing it as though it were a separate web browser). I've seen where
the AV or RMC proxy has become unresponsive which killed all web traffic
(which to many users is the Internet but the web is just part of it). I
can kill the proxy for an AV and get it reloaded (but sometimes it's
just easier to reboot) and killing the RMC proxy is easy. Killing the
proxy won't work if the OS is still configuring to direct network
traffic through the proxy (that isn't running anymore).

Did you check your 'hosts' file (that it only has an uncommented entry
for localhost to go to 127.0.0.1)?

Did you try booting Windows in its safe mode with networking and then
testing the web browsers?


Doesn't appear to be a proxy I can see in those options but Paul may
be onto something. This thing has settled down but next time it does
happen I am going to start going bot hunting because I think something
is coming to me from an ad supported site that is clogging up the up
link pipe. Once it gets clogged up I drag down to a crawl.
I am not sure the IE thing has anything to do with this because it may
have been broke forever. I never use it. There are plenty of hits on
the bug I have that point to Norton. With all of the stuff going on,
turning off my virus scanner did not seem like a good idea. I had the
Tivo app going and I got about 50 intrusion alerts from that yesterday
(event viewer). I am not sure if that was just a fluke or if it was a
tip of how we got into this mess in the first place. I blew that away.
This may all be academic at a certain point because time is catching
up on this old XP machine and I may be going up to 7, kicking and
screaming all the way. I may have a guy sending me 7 pro in the box.


Any site can bog down the client (web browser) by getting stuck in a
Javascript loop or waiting for content that doesn't get delivered (for
example, by an adblocker that blocks content the script is waiting for,
like more scripts from off-domain). You could try disabling Javascript
when you visit the target site to do another download; however, that
will likely make the page unusable or the download link won't work.


I played with it some more and this really seems to be a Java script
hang. I am not sure where to go but I assume when I get the gray box I
could glean something from debugging the script. I only saw it a
couple times but now I am guessing I left the smoking gun on the
ground and walked away.
  #13  
Old August 13th 18, 04:05 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Firefox hanging

In message ,
writes:
[]
wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.

[]
it and it works OK again. It really just seems to be bad on things
that are highly ad supported like Facebook or a boat forum I look at.
I think you are right about an ad bot.
I am going to turn on that connection monitor in FF and see if I can
find the culprit.


At first you said "no particular page activity", now "It really just
seems to be bad on ..." (-:.

When it _is_ "bad", _is_ there network activity? (I use Bitmeter2
[
http://codebox.org.uk/pages/bitmeter2] for its small semi-transparent
window, and the fact that it shows incoming and outgoing in different
colours - but there are plenty similar, and even the one in Task
Manager's Networking tab will show activity.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

History is not the past. It is the method we have evolved of organising our
ignorance of the past. - Hilary Mantel, first Reith Lecture 2017
  #14  
Old August 13th 18, 05:06 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 627
Default Firefox hanging

On Mon, 13 Aug 2018 16:05:44 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message ,
writes:
[]
wrote:
This started yesterday. Firefox hangs, using 50-60% CPU and no network
activity. I restored the C drive and MBR from a week ago (Aconis
image) and it got better for a little while but it was back. Then I
tried refreshing Firefox, same thing, OK for a while then it started
slowing down again. There is no particular page activity.

[]
it and it works OK again. It really just seems to be bad on things
that are highly ad supported like Facebook or a boat forum I look at.
I think you are right about an ad bot.
I am going to turn on that connection monitor in FF and see if I can
find the culprit.


At first you said "no particular page activity", now "It really just
seems to be bad on ..." (-:.

When it _is_ "bad", _is_ there network activity? (I use Bitmeter2
[
http://codebox.org.uk/pages/bitmeter2] for its small semi-transparent
window, and the fact that it shows incoming and outgoing in different
colours - but there are plenty similar, and even the one in Task
Manager's Networking tab will show activity.)


Task manager says the network is not going. That was the first thing I
looked at. CPU is running about 60% and pretty much all of it is
Firefox
 




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