Firewall changes required after updating to Firefox v132
After updating to v132 I have noticed a significant increase in the load times for some websites that our users connect to. Using v131.0.3 I usually see < 1 second load times for the two websites I am monitoring but after upgrading to v132 it is consistently taking 18-19 seconds for the same page. I have tried uninstalling v132 and reverting to v131 and it immediately goes back to the much faster load times. I have also tried installing various v133 releases and I see the same performance issue as for v132.
The environment I am working in is behind a network firewall with relatively restrictive internet access and I am wondering whether there are sites that Firefox is trying to connect to for the new anti-tracking or suspicious activity features (or anything else) that are being blocked and are therefore causing timeouts and retries that are bumping the total load time up.
Can anyone think of anything else I could check or change?
All Replies (8)
You should check with your IT helpdesk about why they are blocking certain sites or slowing traffic down. Your using their internet so they choose how it functions as well. Also this is a forum user help not a support ticket request line.
Hi Mark. Corporate firewalls aren't new. And blocking all internet traffic except for specific sites isn't that unusual either. I realise this is a community forum and not a commercial support site but I was hoping that someone else might have come across this problem and worked out what functionality in Firefox v132 and v133 might be causing the issue.
You can use the Timing section of the Network Monitor (Ctrl+Shift+E) to see where the wait times are for specific requests. Generally speaking, you will need to reload the site after opening the Network Monitor, and you might want to bypass the cache (Ctrl+Shift+R) to rule out a cache access bottleneck as an issue.
Ref. https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/network_monitor/index.html
Recent threads on r/Firefox on Reddit are associating a lot of mid-session slowdowns with use of YouTube, and particularly higher-than-full-HD video (like 1440p). Users can try terminating YouTube processes (using the built-in Task Manager about:processes, at Shift+Esc) and if they experience immediate relief, it could be the same (as yet unsolved) issue.
What operating system are you on?
Would it be possible for you to use the profiler to see what is happening?
I had been using the Network Monitor to try to narrow down what might be occurring but the first Get request for each website I've been trying is where the delay seems to occur. The screenshot I have uploaded shows a blocked time of 18.91 seconds to respond to a request for https://www.microsoft.com It is representative of what I am seeing when I try to get to some other websites we use. If I uninstall Firefox v133 and reinstall v131 and retry I get responses from the same websites in times ranging from 0.3 seconds to 2.0 seconds but nothing like the 18-20 I am getting consistently on v132 and v133.
In this case Firefox is installed on Windows Server 2019 (i.e. Windows 10 equivalent). The environment doesn't currently allow access to the profiler website but I will see if I can get the firewall temporarily changed to allow it to test that out.
Yeah, I second what TyDraniu said, but that might be hard behind the firewall. We really need to figure out what caused it.
Hi Steve,
Could you also try to capture a http log? https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/networking/http/logging.html#using-about-logging
In about:logging, please select "logging to file" and send the log to necko@mozilla.com.
Thanks.
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