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Why does Firefox 40 fail to connect after a session offline?

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  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by 2101bob

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I often spend a long time offline, updating website pages locally. When I then try to go online, Firefox just says "Done" but fails to connect to anywhere. This isn't after clicking "work offline" - should I?

I often spend a long time offline, updating website pages locally. When I then try to go online, Firefox just says "Done" but fails to connect to anywhere. This isn't after clicking "work offline" - should I?

All Replies (7)

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If you are still "off line," that means no internet access.

About this "Done" business,

Hello,

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Thank you!

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Thanks, but to clarify: I'm not setting Firefox to "offline". I just open a local file (one of the pages of the website prior to uploading it to a server), and then keep hitting Reload as I make adjustments in an html editor, to check that it is coming out right. So far so good. However, if I then ask Firefox for a New Tab and try using that to go online to find something (eg correct ASCII code or CSS construction), the status bar will say "Done" as normal, but nothing actually happens. This did not happen prior to v40 (I'm on 40.0.02). It seems as if Firefox is now switching itself to offline mode (ie "don't connect to the internet") after x minutes of working locally, as it needs to be restarted to "kick" it to connect. Cheers - Bob Downing

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Instead of just opening a new tab, try a bookmark (open new tab/window).

I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.

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Thanks, Fred. That's one workaround, but I was hoping for a solution!

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Did using a bookmark work?

Check your current "Net Tab" setting;

Type about:config<enter> in the address bar. If a warning screen comes up, press the Be Careful button. At the top of the screen is a search bar. Type browser.newtab.url This tells Firefox what to show when a new tab is opened. If you want, right click and select Modify. You can change the setting to;

about:home (Firefox default home page), about:newtab (shows the sites most visited), about:blank (a blank page),

or you can enter any web page or about: page you want.

The same instructions are used for the new window setting, listed as browser.startup.homepage.

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So when you open a local html file it loads, but if you open a new tab there is no webpage displayed. Is it successfully sending the page request?

You can check in the Web Console from Tools > Web Developer > Web Console

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Thanks Fred and guigs. Using bookmarks wasn't helping. My New Tab 'home' page is in fact my standard Firefox startup 'home' page, a plain html page with a number of regularly used addresses (eg Google, bank) so I can start off in the direction I want. So I'd have the first tab open showing a page from the offline local site I'm working on, and the second tab with this 'home' page. Clicking on a link to Google or the W3 CSS help produced nothing - just a 'Done' in the Firefox status bar (which I've kept using the Status-4-evar addon).

I've tried using the Web Console, but don't understand it; plus, it shows nothing anyway. (It did tell me something was deprecated when I just opened it, but not where Firefox thought it was going or anything remotely like a ping or ftp display).