gmail & popup blocker

All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a Gmail
email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening the
page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA

--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

On Fri, 10 Jul 2020 at 15:26:24, KenK wrote:
All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a Gmail
email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening the
page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA

Use a mail client (Thunderbird for example) rather than webmail? (-:
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)[email protected]+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as
they were. - Marcel Proust

KenK wrote:
All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a Gmail
email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening the
page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA


It's interesting, that the same message shows in a Safari users session.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6410716?page=2

The root cause there, was some sort of PUP or adware interfering
in browser operation. The idea is to disable extensions
temporarily and retest.

The concept would be, maybe the PUP blocks popups to try to get
you to disable the real popup blocker setting.

Paul

KenK wrote:

All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a Gmail
email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening the
page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA

Besides what Paul mentioned about disabling all extensions and
retesting, many extensions and tweakers change settings in Firefox that
are still effected with all extensions disabled and even when starting
Firefox in its safe mode. Neither of those diagnostic steps eliminate
effects from changing settings. If disabling all extensions doesn't
work, and if starting Firefox in its safe mode doesn't work, try
resetting Firefox. The creates a new profile with all the default
settings, and no extensions yet installed.

Did you test with temporarily disabling your anti-virus program?

Have you opened a private session in Firefox and testing using that?

Even if you don't install any adblock or other content-modifying
extension into Firefox, it has its own internal blocklist. It should
not be interferring with a print dialog, though. Mozilla incorporated
the Disconnect.me blocklist into Firefox, and why the Disconnect add-on
is superfluous. That is a very weak blocklist. The number of entries
is dismal. When you visit Gmail, look at the left-side of the address
bar for a shield icon. If gray, no known trackers or harmful scripts
were detected on the site. If gray and crossed out, Enhanced Tracking
Protection (ETP) is enabled on a site (likely you choose to disable it
on the site using Site Preferences). Click on the shield to see more
info. If the shield is purple, ETP is enabled AND it blocked trackers
and suspect scripts on a site. Click on the shield to get more info.

The old option to enable/disable tracking protection is gone. You now
have to go into Options - Privacy & Security - Enhanced Tracking
Protection, and disable what you want by selecting the Custom config
where you decide what to block. You could try the Standard level (in
case you were at the Strict level) to keep some protection to see if the
site then works correctly. The only difference that I've found between
Standard and Strict is Standard allows trackers with inprivate sessions
(but then wipes that data when you exit the inprivate window) versus
Strict that blocks trackers in both non-private and private sessions.
Allowing trackers, even in a private session, means tracking can be
achieved within that private session, but not between private sessions.
Up to you if you want to allow trackers while surfing using a private
session. You could also click on the purple shield to change protection
for just that site. I use Strict mode, and change a site's preferences
regarding ETP if I feel I can trust the site or really need it to work;
however, I configure Firefox to purge EVERTYING on its exit, so the
worse would be some tracking occurs /during/ a non-private session.
Because I use uBlock Origin, I first thought ETP was superfluous,
especially since the Disconnect.me blocklist is so small. However, ETP
also blocks cryptominer and fingerprinting sites that aren't covered by
any of the blocklists (e.g., EasyList, EasyPrivacy, AdGuard). More info
at:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...irefox-desktop

When printing, are you using Firefox's Print function, or somehow else
doing the printing?

Did you allow Firefox to update itself, but have to restart it?

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in news:rbz
:

On Fri, 10 Jul 2020 at 15:26:24, KenK wrote:
All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a
Gmail
email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening
the
page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the
window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA

Use a mail client (Thunderbird for example) rather than webmail? (-:

That's what I keep telling myself too. But I hate to lose all those read
emails in the cloud. I return to one once in a while. Maybe just fire up
Gmail for this?


--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

VanguardLH wrote in :

KenK wrote:

All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a
Gmail email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening
the page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the
window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return
to printing emails?

TIA

Besides what Paul mentioned about disabling all extensions and
retesting, many extensions and tweakers change settings in Firefox
that are still effected with all extensions disabled and even when
starting Firefox in its safe mode. Neither of those diagnostic steps
eliminate effects from changing settings. If disabling all extensions
doesn't work, and if starting Firefox in its safe mode doesn't work,
try resetting Firefox. The creates a new profile with all the default
settings, and no extensions yet installed.

Did you test with temporarily disabling your anti-virus program?

Have you opened a private session in Firefox and testing using that?

Even if you don't install any adblock or other content-modifying
extension into Firefox, it has its own internal blocklist. It should
not be interferring with a print dialog, though. Mozilla incorporated
the Disconnect.me blocklist into Firefox, and why the Disconnect
add-on is superfluous. That is a very weak blocklist. The number of
entries is dismal. When you visit Gmail, look at the left-side of the
address bar for a shield icon. If gray, no known trackers or harmful
scripts were detected on the site. If gray and crossed out, Enhanced
Tracking Protection (ETP) is enabled on a site (likely you choose to
disable it on the site using Site Preferences). Click on the shield
to see more info. If the shield is purple, ETP is enabled AND it
blocked trackers and suspect scripts on a site. Click on the shield
to get more info.

The old option to enable/disable tracking protection is gone. You now
have to go into Options - Privacy & Security - Enhanced Tracking
Protection, and disable what you want by selecting the Custom config
where you decide what to block. You could try the Standard level (in
case you were at the Strict level) to keep some protection to see if
the site then works correctly. The only difference that I've found
between Standard and Strict is Standard allows trackers with inprivate
sessions (but then wipes that data when you exit the inprivate window)
versus Strict that blocks trackers in both non-private and private
sessions. Allowing trackers, even in a private session, means tracking
can be achieved within that private session, but not between private
sessions. Up to you if you want to allow trackers while surfing using
a private session. You could also click on the purple shield to
change protection for just that site. I use Strict mode, and change a
site's preferences regarding ETP if I feel I can trust the site or
really need it to work; however, I configure Firefox to purge
EVERTYING on its exit, so the worse would be some tracking occurs
/during/ a non-private session. Because I use uBlock Origin, I first
thought ETP was superfluous, especially since the Disconnect.me
blocklist is so small. However, ETP also blocks cryptominer and
fingerprinting sites that aren't covered by any of the blocklists
(e.g., EasyList, EasyPrivacy, AdGuard). More info at:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...otection-firef
ox-desktop

When printing, are you using Firefox's Print function, or somehow else
doing the printing?

I just use Gmail's Print command.

Did you allow Firefox to update itself, but have to restart it?

If it updates, which extremely rarely happens in XP (frequently on mu Win
10 system) I just leave things alone.




--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

On Sat, 11 Jul 2020 at 18:08:27, KenK wrote:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in news:rbz
:

On Fri, 10 Jul 2020 at 15:26:24, KenK wrote:
[]
I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA

Use a mail client (Thunderbird for example) rather than webmail? (-:

That's what I keep telling myself too. But I hate to lose all those read
emails in the cloud. I return to one once in a while. Maybe just fire up
Gmail for this?

Sounds like a good plan; I imagine they'd still be there.

There's probably a way to download them all anyway, when you first start
using a mail client.

(Or, for IMAP, you might still be using the cloud anyway, just via an
interface that _you_ have [some] control of. I don't really understand
[or trust] IMAP - I'm a POP man.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)[email protected]+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Linux is a car kit and Mac is a car with the hood welded shut - Mayayana in
alt.windows7.general, 2015-12-4

KenK wrote:

VanguardLH wrote in :

KenK wrote:

All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a
Gmail email via Firefox on XP. Says

Other suggestions not addressed by KenK:
- Disable all extensions.
- Restart Firefox in its safe mode.
- Reset Firefox.
- Temporarily disable anti-virus program.
- Try a private session in Firefox.
- Change ETP setting to custom, and disable all filter settings.

Single suggestion addressed by KenK:
- Which Print dialog appears?

I just use Gmail's Print command.

That initiates a call to Firefox to use Firefox's Print function which
in turn initiates the OS standard Print dialog (Firefox defers the Print
function to the OS instead of providing their own). Gmail cannot do any
printing (unless it goes to Google Cloud Print service). It has to rely
on the Print function in the web client connecting to their site.

So, for the Print dialog that you see, do you see the standard OS Print
dialog, the same one you see in other programs when you print from them?
Does the Print dialog you see look similar to:

https://etc.usf.edu/te_win/hardware/i/print2.jpg
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ialogboxxp.png

Or does it look like a print dialog presented by the ancilliary software
installed for whatever printer you installed, or somehow look very
different than the standard Print dialog presented by the OS?

If you're not sure how to describe any differences you see in the Print
dialog, grab a snapshot, upload to online storage (e.g., Imgur, TinyPic)
and give a URL here, so others can see what you see.

KenK wrote:

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:

Use a mail client (Thunderbird for example) rather than webmail? (-:

That's what I keep telling myself too. But I hate to lose all those
read emails in the cloud. I return to one once in a while. Maybe just
fire up Gmail for this?

Why would you lose e-mails in your account because you started using a
local e-mail client?

One the first mail poll, a POP and IMAP client will download all the
messages still in your Gmail account. However, with POP, make sure to
disable the client's option to delete messages after downloading them
(RETRieve followed by DELEte is the standard command order, but you'll
likely just want RETR with no subsequent DELE). Instead of POP, IMAP is
the better protocol, especially if you want to sync folders between
client and server other than the Inbox. POP has no concept of folders.
POP only understands a mailbox. Even the folder named "Inbox" is really
just the mailbox. IMAP can also alert immediately when new messages
arrive rather than with POP that has to poll at intervals to check for
new messages. Use IMAP in your local e-mail client. You'll have to
check the server-side settings in your Gmail account to make sure IMAP
access is enabled (same for POP if you decide to go with that).

Also, in Tbird you need to enable OAUTH2 authentication in the Gmail
account you define within that client for it to work with Gmail. Or, in
the server-side settings for your Gmail account, you'll have to enable
the "Allow less secure" option (to allow clients to connect without
using OAUTH2 and just use the login credentials which are encrypted,
anyway).

On 10 Jul 2020 15:26:24 GMT, KenK wrote:

All of a sudden today I get an error message when I try to print a Gmail
email via Firefox on XP. Says

"Grrr! A popup blocker may be preventing the application from opening the
page. If you have a popup blocker, try disabling it to open the window."

I don't recall using a popup blocker. I have no idea what happened. I
didn't purposely change anything. What can I do about this to return to
printing emails?

TIA


Most web browsers come with a built-in pop-up blocker, simply because
there are obnoxious sites which would spam your screen with lots of
pop-up windows.

You could turn off your browser's built-in pop-up blocker, and let the
obnoxious sites spam your screen. A better option is to white-list
Gmail in your browser's built-in pop-up blocker, and leave the
obnoxious sites still blocked.

For Firefox 52.9.0 ESR, the last version of Firefox which runs on XP

Tools Options Content
Under the heading "Pop-ups", click "Exceptions" and add a site
to the white-list.


--
Kind regards
Ralph