This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

problems connecting to local librairy website after installing norton security

  • 27 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

it's a public wifi but uses encrypted WEP. I can immediately connect to the building next door which is an unprotected public wifi. very strange and occured after I installed Norton Security last december. I haved checked laptop and wifi unit and they are ok. HP pavillion dv6 with Broadcom internal wifi.

it's a public wifi but uses encrypted WEP. I can immediately connect to the building next door which is an unprotected public wifi. very strange and occured after I installed Norton Security last december. I haved checked laptop and wifi unit and they are ok. HP pavillion dv6 with Broadcom internal wifi.

Chosen solution

benttwo said

I was able to get the network administrator to look at this . . .

ultimately, it came down to when initially connecting to the library wifi ( encrypted , secure ) you need to type a url into the search bar to kick the detectportal.com path through to the library login screen

That was very good work. Well done both of you. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (20)

more options

As a test, disable Norton. Not the add-on, the program itself. If the problem is gone, contact Norton for help;

https://support.norton.com

http://community.norton.com/

more options

Have tried many things now. this is a wifi connection and it appears to me that either n security or firefox is not recognizing the librairy login screen as occaisionally i can force it to logon . it will quite easily log on to the next door buildings wifi connection.

more options

benttwo said

Have tried many things now. this is a wifi connection and it appears to me that either n security or firefox is not recognizing the librairy login screen as occaisionally i can force it to logon . it will quite easily log on to the next door buildings wifi connection.

Did you talk to the staff there for more help on connecting to their wifi?

more options

yes , but they are library staff , not techies. I have found many postings about a problem with " detect portal" activities from firefox and this does show up when I try to connect to the library wifi hotspot, and I believe this is the problem, but don't quite know the proper response to this

more options

Please post your question at https://community.norton.com/forums

as you say :
"problems connecting to local librairy website after installing norton security"

No mention if other browsers are getting connected. Not a Firefox issue I do not think; is a Norton Issue or Library Issue.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

more options

Hi all when i first connected to the (norton) forum website , it immediately showed a screen that had an update for foxfire wifi problems. However I was on a poor connection and it wouldn't download. It looked like a direct response to the problem. later on a better connection it did not connect to that update screen and i haven't been able to find it in all the multiple forum discussions. frustrating because it looked like the right answer. I appreciate all your members responses as this has been a problem for months and many , many efforts on my part to try and decode both norton and foxfire settings to fix this annoyance.

more options

The solution is to post in https://community.norton.com/forums and wait for help. Someone will be along quickly to look.

You state "it immediately showed a screen that had an update for foxfire wifi problems" I find that it would probably be just a update for Norton and not just for Firefox. I am a poster in that forum also so I can not see it would be specific to Firefox. Suggest see if something here : https://community.norton.com/en/search/site/Firefox%20wifi?f[0]=bundle:forum_thread

you can reset your system with this. Save the below to a Text File called Flush.txt then save another to your Desktop and call it Flush.bat and use double click on that one to run it, it will self delete.

@Echo on pushd\windows\system32\drivers\etc attrib -h -s -r hosts echo 127.0.0.1 localhost>HOSTS attrib +r +h +s hosts popd ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew ipconfig /flushdns netsh winsock reset all netsh int ip reset all shutdown -r -t 1 del %0

Give that a go to reset your network card.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

more options

Thank you for this detailed approach. I agree that the norton screen probably was a general update for "browsers" as opposed to foxfire, as I was only there for a few seconds to check it out on a poor connection. Currently on a local unsecured wifi with a login screen that I can access without any problem, unlike the secured library site which kicks foxfire off with a direction to detect portal and that's where the problem is and has been . To me it's almost as if it needs a short delay period to recognize the library login properly or some such. I also noticed in the community...foxfire site above that there is some discussion about the safe surfing switch in nor. settings being grayed out . This was not the case for the first 2 1/2 months after Security was installed , but suddenly showed up in that screen last week, after a very concentrated effort by me to try turning various switches off and on in nor. settings and using about config in foxfire to see if any of them worked. Disabling 3 lines in about config. worked for 3 days in a row but now I can't get to the library login again. Very frustrating! Thank you very much for your responses and will try your suggestions above over the next few days and respond on results after a few days.

more options

Hi, yes the built in Norton Safe Search no longer works on 57+But you can install the Norton Extension by typing Norton into the search bar on this page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/ .

It does not show the green safe site in a google search anymore as per changes to Firefox to protect it from crashes caused by Extensions/add-ons. (Yes I hate that also)

I really do thing you need to take this subject up in the Norton Community Forum to get to the root of the problem. I do not use wi-fi so am of no help with the set-up and implementation of it. But the forum will have someone.

G'luck

more options

ok tried the Flush.bat as a regular user, and it opened another icon on the desktop labelled "Hosts". Nothing else happened. Should I try this as administrator? incidentally, I have gone to another branch of the same library in a neighbour city and here I was able to immediately open the library logon screen in firefox and use the wifi connection.

more options

Do not know why that opened the Hosts file unless there are entries that should not be in there. Maybe copy paste Hosts info into a message. Host files are very minimal with very few entries unless custom done or malware has altered it.

Maybe run Flush.bat again with as Administrator. A Dos box should open and will reset all the entries, close and you will be rebooted.

I think you answered your own question with you went to another Library and had no problem. You also stated before that people in this one know nothing. You may want to phone/contact the main branch of the Library and explain your issue and difference between one branch and the other and see if someone can setup the wifi again at the problem library.

You could also Please use more than 1 scanner as each uses diff tech :

Save your Report and google each before deleting anything as do not want to delete something you need, If need help :

Post in only 1 forum, then wait.

Suggest running AdwCleaner, Google all found entries before deleting or ask for help in the Malwarebytes forum.

Just in case there are issues with that host file and other things yet found.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

more options

benttwo said

this is a wifi connection and it appears to me that either n security or firefox is not recognizing the librairy login screen as occaisionally i can force it to logon .

What is happening, exactly?

When you need to authenticate to a portal to access the internet, you usually cannot do that when requesting a secure address (HTTPS address) because there will be a certificate issue. Try using a non-secure address such as:

http://www.example.com/


To disable the automatic detection of the authentication page (detect portal), you can modify this setting:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste portal and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the network.captive-portal-service.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false

more options

Thanks again for your responses. I checked out the "firefox ...malware" connection you posted above and as I read thru the options, I was reminded that shortly after I installed the n sec. I had an odd thing happen 3 times as I came in to the lib. each week. At login the wifi was redirected to "hawaii.com" instead of the lib. logon screen. This sounds like some of the problems that are being discussed. I have tried posting to the n forum as you advised, but got no response after an hour on the weekend , but will try again during the week. You have provided many possible helps here and I believe one of them will work and so will persist. Curiously , today I logged on immediately at the main library here.....??? Anyways I will try each approach and report back in the next week or so. Thanks again.

more options

Please provide public link(s) (no password) for the library that we can check out. No Personal Information Please !

Note: While it is possible you have malware redirecting you, it's also possible the malware is in the library servers.

more options

Hello Fred today I'm at a non secure public wifi down the street from my home and not at the main library branch and so I'm not sure I can give you the info I suspect you need. The library is part of the Fraser Valley Regional Library ( FVRL) which is a large network that runs from Vancouver B C to Hope along the Fraser river ( about 100 miles ). The I P # shown on the logo in fire fox is 192.168.11.254. ( 001 I think ). Is this what you are suggesting ?

added later - # is 192.168.11.254. 4501

Thanks for your response.

Modified by benttwo

more options

Pkshadow said

Do not know why that opened the Hosts file unless there are entries that should not be in there. Maybe copy paste Hosts info into a message. Host files are very minimal with very few entries unless custom done or malware has altered it. Maybe run Flush.bat again with as Administrator. A Dos box should open and will reset all the entries, close and you will be rebooted. I think you answered your own question with you went to another Library and had no problem. You also stated before that people in this one know nothing. You may want to phone/contact the main branch of the Library and explain your issue and difference between one branch and the other and see if someone can setup the wifi again at the problem library. You could also Please use more than 1 scanner as each uses diff tech : Save your Report and google each before deleting anything as do not want to delete something you need, If need help : Post in only 1 forum, then wait. Suggest running AdwCleaner, Google all found entries before deleting or ask for help in the Malwarebytes forum. Just in case there are issues with that host file and other things yet found. Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

Pkshadow said

Do not know why that opened the Hosts file unless there are entries that should not be in there. Maybe copy paste Hosts info into a message. Host files are very minimal with very few entries unless custom done or malware has altered it. Maybe run Flush.bat again with as Administrator. A Dos box should open and will reset all the entries, close and you will be rebooted. I think you answered your own question with you went to another Library and had no problem. You also stated before that people in this one know nothing. You may want to phone/contact the main branch of the Library and explain your issue and difference between one branch and the other and see if someone can setup the wifi again at the problem library. You could also Please use more than 1 scanner as each uses diff tech : Save your Report and google each before deleting anything as do not want to delete something you need, If need help : Post in only 1 forum, then wait. Suggest running AdwCleaner, Google all found entries before deleting or ask for help in the Malwarebytes forum. Just in case there are issues with that host file and other things yet found. Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
more options

also Hi PK this is what is in "Hosts"

on pushd\windows\system32\drivers\etc attrib -h -s -r hosts echo 127.0.0.1 localhost attrib +r +h +s hosts popd ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew ipconfig /flushdns netsh winsock reset all netsh int ip reset all shutdown -r -t 1 del "C:\Users\bentpines\Desktop\Flush.bat"

Also downloaded ADWmalware and ran it , it showed only 1 item which read something like " legacy norton security... " , I believe possibly an artefact from n sec. 2011 ? as opposed to currently installed version ? I did not delete but I'm not sure where it is to be able to reread the complete listing for the scan finding...

more options

FredMcD said

Please provide public link(s) (no password) for the library that we can check out. No Personal Information Please ! Note: While it is possible you have malware redirecting you, it's also possible the malware is in the library servers.

Modified by benttwo

more options

Hi, I have no idea why my bat file wrote to your host file. Is not suppose to do that. That info was straight from Norton when I had a issue with connection.

Replace or edit info in your hosts file to this please :

  1. Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
  2. This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
  3. This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
  4. entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
  5. be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
  6. The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
  7. space.
  8. Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
  9. lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
  10. For example:
  11. 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
  12. 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
  1. localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
  2. 127.0.0.1 localhost
  3. ::1 localhost
more options

With out the numbers, change numbers to hashtags #

  1. 1
  2. 2