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

Internal websites not loading via DNS

  • 11 replies
  • 10 have this problem
  • 242 views
  • Last reply by guigs

more options

Error The requested URL could not be retrieved Error: The web filter could not find the address for the requested site

Why you are seeing this: The system is unable to determine the IP address for itserv

Possible reasons could be:

   The site name has been entered incorrectly or does not exist. Please double check you have entered the correct URL.
   The Domain Name Server (DNS) is unable to resolve the IP address for this domain.


And yet, if I open my internal website from any other browser it operates no problem. This is the same for my internal IIS website, and also another internal website running its own web server. Any ideas?

Error The requested URL could not be retrieved Error: The web filter could not find the address for the requested site Why you are seeing this: The system is unable to determine the IP address for itserv Possible reasons could be: The site name has been entered incorrectly or does not exist. Please double check you have entered the correct URL. The Domain Name Server (DNS) is unable to resolve the IP address for this domain. And yet, if I open my internal website from any other browser it operates no problem. This is the same for my internal IIS website, and also another internal website running its own web server. Any ideas?

Chosen solution

Following a little more investigation by myself yesterday, I did solve the issue. The server aforementioned is on a static IP, which is then defined as an exception in the system proxy settings. Other browsers are able to realise that the DNS name resolves to an IP within this range. Despite Firefox set to automatically pick these up, it does not realise the DNS name of the server translates to an IP in the range and so just times out. So it's definitely a bug with Firefox that needs to be resolved as like I said, other browsers are able to resolve the DNS and make adjustments to access the data. No doubt I am not the first to come across this issue.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (11)

more options

Hi,

Thank you for contacting support. I am sorry to hear that the internal websites are not loading, and there appears to be a web filter issue and a dns issue.

Please check to see if it persists on other browsers, then with the web filter if anything is blocking access.

References:

Other references

more options

Hello, I can confirm that ANY other browser operates correctly. This was stated in my original post. I do not believe it to be a web filter issue, as of course it is an internal site. So IE11/IE10, Safari 5.1.7 and Chrome 31.0.1650.63 m.

more options

Hi bloomcomputing,

Thank you for posting back with your results. Another troubleshooting step you can take is creating a new profile. Please create a new profile and let us know if the issue continues.

Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

more options

Sorry, this doesn't work either. My colleague on another computer receives exactly the same error. I can also replicate this error on many other computers across the school site.

more options

Hi bloomcomputing,

Please check to see if firefox is being blocked from the school's domain name server. If it was working before, you can flush the dns cache on the computer /flushdns in the cmd.exe.

Firefox can't load websites but other browsers can

If you are using a proxy, by default Firefox uses the System settings to connect. These options are in Tools> Options > Advanced > Network > Connection [Settings...]

Please let us know if you are not using a proxy or how that goes, we are happy to help.

more options

Chosen Solution

Following a little more investigation by myself yesterday, I did solve the issue. The server aforementioned is on a static IP, which is then defined as an exception in the system proxy settings. Other browsers are able to realise that the DNS name resolves to an IP within this range. Despite Firefox set to automatically pick these up, it does not realise the DNS name of the server translates to an IP in the range and so just times out. So it's definitely a bug with Firefox that needs to be resolved as like I said, other browsers are able to resolve the DNS and make adjustments to access the data. No doubt I am not the first to come across this issue.

more options

Hi bloomcomputing,

Thank you for posting back I would be more than happy to file a bug for this issue. To make it an affective/complete bug, if you are ok with sharing troubleshooting information for the developers this will help a bunch!

Some effective information needed:

  • Clear steps to reproduce (include the IP addresses if that's possible)
  • Network log of the beginning of connection where this error occurs. If you open Tools --> Web Developer --> Network this console will allow you to collect the logs for the engineers to analyze.

So far the most likely bugs have been shared with me are: Are these related to your issue? if so I would put the information in a comment on those bugs

If not I can file a bug with the information in the component Firefox Core> Networking.

Thank you again, and we look forward to your post.

more options
  1. . Internet proxy settings set in Control Panel, with exceptions also noted for internal IPs, including that used for internal website.
  2. . Browse to http://itserv/ in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari with no issues. Browser recognises that itserv translates to IP address within exception range and so loads page correctly.
  3. . Browse to http://itserv/ in Firefox, and page times out and gives:

"Error The requested URL could not be retrieved Error: The web filter could not find the address for the requested site Why you are seeing this: The system is unable to determine the IP address for itserv " Note, if I use an IP address at this point it's also fine

  1. . Add itserv into proxy exception list in Control Panel, so there is now the IP exception and DNS exception.
  2. . Firefox opens page correctly, hooray!

I can confirm that the bugzilla posts are along the same lines as my issue, very surprised these still exist some 7 years on!

I am unable to export the network logs from Firefox, however it does show in the timings section that the 18ms used to process the request were only used on waiting.

edit formatted (Used # for numbered paragraphs. ) ~J99

Modified by John99

more options

Hi bloomcomputing,

In order to export the HTTP traffic on the page you can follow MDN's posted instructions for HTTP logging. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/d.../HTTP_logging

Though I am happy to hear that it works!

more options

Hopefully this log is helpful then. I admit I made a mistake in the middle adding an incorrect DNS name in the proxy exception list, so the first failed attempt it at the start, but the working attempt is near the end when trying to access itserv. If the upload of the .txt file doesn't work below, where do I send the log?

more options

We can create a new bug or add more information to the bug below. If you login to bugzilla you have the option to upload the troubleshooting information there: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=408669

Just add the steps, a little information about the setup and systems you ran the test on.

If you are interested to find out more information about bugs: