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Level 2

231 points

Adblock Plus freezes Firefox - force quit necessary - help please

Always looking for further security and a way to avoid annoying ads, I installed the Adblock Plus add-on to my Firefox 8.0.1 and had an immediate issue.

I couldn't quit Firefox.

The only way to get out of Ff was to force quit. I tried this several time, same result. I uninstalled Adblock Plus, problem gone.

This is a new iMac and (believe it or not) I have yet install any software except for Firefox.

I'm using Ff 8.0.1, still running SL 10.6.6. Flash plugin disabled, Javascript disabled via NoScript. (btw Flashblock add-on won't work for me since it says it has to have Javascript enabled).

Any ideas on the issue? just not using Adblock Plus seems too easy an answer.

I did notice on my trial run that it took an enormous amount of time to bypass the opening advert on NYTimes before getting to the homepage. Once Adblock Plus was uninstalled, it actually was faster to just hit the skip ad button (but that doesn't solve the inherent problem of having to see the ad in the first place)

Thanks,

Mrs H

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Dec 17, 2011 8:50 AM

27 replies

Dec 19, 2011 10:11 PM in response to Mrs H

Hey Mrs H.!

Basically, EasyList and Fanboy perform the same trick: they sniff at your requests to load an Internet page, check all the active links in the page, compare them with a list of ad-serving URLs they keep as up-to-date as possible, and block those ads, thus preventing them from loading with the rest of the page. It helps Web pages load faster, since many links and (usually) dynamic content are shunned. Choosing one over the other in terms of performance is anybody's guess, really, because they both rely on widening blocked domains lists as much as possible without actually preventing you from surfing the Web, so IMO, the best option is to try them both, and keep the one that agrees more with you and your surfing habits.

I used to use Camino, but I ditched it because, like Safari, it doesn't have "real" tab-browsing capabilities in the sense that you must Command-click links and favorites for them to open in a new foreground tab. Opera does it natively, that's why I like it so much (among other things). It's also safe, blazingly fast, and offers very good rendering on the many sites that are somewhat poorly coded...

Now, your questions about pipelining... One thing in this (dated) article is true: HTTP 1.1 postulates that all servers adhering to this standard should have pipelining enabled and supported. I suppose it's now true of all servers using HTTP 1.1 (let's say, about 99.99% of the servers over the world), though some webmaster can be tempted to shut this functionality down every once in a while to prevent server overload. In fact, pipelining doesn't send one request after the other until it reaches your set limit; it actually sends requests in sequence, often inside the same data packet, until the whole webpage has finished loading. Enabling the "keep-alive" functionality is important too, since it keeps the connection between server and client (your browser) alive, and prevents your browser from having to check in to the server every time you click on a link in a webpage.

Finally, Rosetta is one fine tool for those who still need to use PPC-only applications, but has a major drawback: it's not precisely an emulator per se, but acts like one, is power-hungry, and slow. It's a shame that Mozilla declined to develop later versions of Firefox (actually, the whole Gecko 1.9 trunk) for earlier versions of Mac OS X, but I suppose it didn't fit in their business plan...

Opera works fine on all OS X versions... (Hint, hint)

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 20, 2011 7:18 AM in response to FrenchToast

FrenchToast wrote: it's not precisely an emulator per se, but acts like one, is power-hungry, and slow.

It may be slower in previous OS versions -- I wouldn't know, since all my other computers before using 10.6 were PPC -- but in Snow I don't notice anything slow about it. There may be a few small glitches, but I'm able to run Appleworks, Office 2004 and CS2 as if they were native. I haven't encountered any problems with it being especially CPU hungry either.

Curious to know: how often does Opera get updated/patched for security issues? That's one of the problems I have with Camino.

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 20, 2011 8:02 AM in response to FrenchToast

FrenchToast wrote:

Hey Mrs H.!

Opera works fine on all OS X versions... (Hint, hint)

Bon jour, FT -

I'll reply to the rest later - and thanks for more food for thought.

Thanks for the Opera recommendation. Here's what I found about system requirements on their site which seems to say I'll need Opera 10 for our Intel MBP running Tiger.

Same question at WZZZ - are there security updates for the older version?

How does it compare to Ff for extensions like WOT and (now my lovely) ABP?

Opera 11.50 and later

Works with OS X Leopard (10.5), or greater.

Opera 11

Intel-based systems. Note that it does not work with PowerPC-based systems, Mac OS X 10.4 or below.

Opera 10

Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) or higher on an Intel- or PowerPC-based system.

Mrs H

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 20, 2011 11:54 AM in response to FrenchToast

FrenchToast wrote:

Hey Mrs H.!

Now, your questions about pipelining... One thing in this (dated) article is true: HTTP...

Opera works fine on all OS X versions... (Hint, hint)...

Onward and upward -

Are the steps in the directions in the dated article at least correct?

I looked at Opera for their Extensions - WOT and ABP are OK: the logo for ABP is different though.

NoScript (which they call NotScript?) won't work in Opera 10 which is what I'll need for our Tiger MBP unless I am misreading what I quoted above. I'll just disable JavaScript somehow or other and let Mr H figure out how to enable it when he needs it - that'll keep him busy (and unhappy!)

I absolutely must do the update for the iMac so I can move on to all these fun things which I'm not allowing myself to do until I do that.

Thanks again,

Mrs H

Dec 20, 2011 9:59 PM in response to Mrs H

Hi,

The article you mention holds some truth alright, in the sense that pipelining isn't some magic trick that'll turn a workhorse into a thoroughbred (liberally translated from the French...). If your network is slow, the webpages you visit will be displayed slowly no matter what. Pipelining will only help display webpages faster if you have broadband, and your browser can multiply DNS requests, sometimes through different DNS servers, until the whole page is painted/rendered in the browser. The real key in quick rendering is two-fold:

1) Using a Web browser that is quick by nature (Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc...), thanks to prefetching, for example, pipelining or no pipelining; and

2) Blocking URLs to website you don't want to visit, or don't want to hear/see about (ads, in other words, but also other dynamic content such as the buttons that will let you post the link to the webpage in Twitter/Facebook/WhatHaveYou)

Disabling JavaScript won't really help in the way of quick surfing, because nowadays, JavaScript is everywhere, by itself or via some derivatives such as AJAX. The point of extensions/add-ons such as NoScript et al is to let the user decide where and when to allow loading JavaScript agents, and not suffer from them when not wanted.

Now, if your Macs have Intel Inside (the MBP should, at the very least), indeed, it would be better for you to upgrade to Snow Leopard: mine came with Tiger, and I've tried to reinstall that OS once. It took me all of one hour to realize I missed SL too much to be stuck with Tiger again...

I guess that's why they say there's no stopping progress!

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 21, 2011 2:17 PM in response to FrenchToast

FrenchToast wrote:

Hi,

A.The article you mention holds some truth alright, in the sense that pipelining isn't some magic trick that'll turn a workhorse into a thoroughbred (liberally translated from the French...).

2) Blocking URLs to website you don't want to visit, or don't want to hear/see about (ads, in other words, but also other dynamic content such as the buttons that will let you post the link to the webpage in Twitter/Facebook/WhatHaveYou)

B. Disabling JavaScript won't really help in the way of quick surfing, because nowadays, JavaScript is everywhere

C. Now, if your Macs have Intel Inside (the MBP should, at the very least), indeed, it would be better for you to upgrade to Snow Leopard: mine came with Tiger, and I've tried to reinstall that OS once. It took me all of one hour to realize I missed SL too much to be stuck with Tiger again...

FT -

A few thoughts on the above:

A. Workhorse-to-thoroughbred - I don't know what the original French was, nor if this is an expression utile, but your translation of the metaphor is very effective. If this is to say that English is your second language, would that my French were so good.

2. I really got ABP to get rid of the ads and the increased speed is just a bonus - an almighty big bonus I might add.

B. Disabling JavaScript? Why do I do it? Someone here on the forum - heaven knows who, heaven knows when - suggested it was a securer way to surf - and Mr H has a habit of visiting sites I wouldn't (which is why I also have WOT installed on his MBP - and he does avoid sites that aren't rated Excellent/ aka trustworthy.) But we do find that we enable it for lots of sites for lots of reasons.

C. Your question prompted me to update my profile page with correct info on our manymany Macs. My Intel 2011 iMac runs SL (haven't yet updated from 10.6.6 to 10.6.8 - but definitely not going to Lion - my little effort to "stop progress"! Mr H's 2007 Intel MBP runs Tiger because we have several apps and a scanner that won't work with SL. Yes, I know I should partition the HD and have SL and Tiger on the MBP, I just have been tied up in other things and I'm not sure Mr H would enjoy the dual boot thing.

And that, the MBP running Tiger, is why I'm searching for a browser that runs on Tiger and continues with security updates. It looks like Opera does or doesn't? I'm not sure from its website if the older version - 10x - is simply available or if it is also maintained (WZZZ also asked this earlier). So, that is why I have considered installing TenFourFox onto the MBP which is really designed for PPC Macs, but which BDA and others assure me will run on my Intel MBP running Tiger.

And one final thing I have a very speedy, zippy internet connection via my local ISP.

Mrs H

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 21, 2011 3:59 PM in response to Mrs H

Disabling JavaScript? Why do I do it? Someone here on the forum - heaven knows who, heaven knows when - suggested it was a securer way to surf -

JavaScript is a principal attack vector for malware and a resource for trackers. With the NoScript Add-on for Firefox, all JavaScript is by default disabled, unless a site is peviously whitelisted as trusted. You already know from using it that one then proceeds to allow the minimum scripts, if any, for any given site or page within that site to function properly.

I don't think you'd want to have JS disabled directly in the browser, which can be done. That would make life very difficult.

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 21, 2011 7:13 PM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ wrote:

Disabling JavaScript? Why do I do it? Someone here on the forum - heaven knows who, heaven knows when - suggested it was a securer way to surf -

JavaScript is a principal attack vector for malware and a resource for trackers...

Thanks for reminding me WZZZ - I knew there was a good reason.

So it looks like Opera won't be that great for us still with Tiger, which is where I recall you are The extension similar to NoScript that I found in Opera's extension list - NotScript - does not work for Opera 10x which is as high as one can go in Tiger.

I haven't installed TenFourFox on the Tiger MBP yet - am waiting til 3.6.x Ff runs its course. I worry about having the 2 installed at the same time. I know we can't run them simultaneously, but I don't know if once I install TFF is there no going back to Ff (profile having been adapted to TFF can't work for Ff? (I am muddled here and haven't yet quite figured out the compatibility of the profiles for the 2 which I know use the same profiles but can't share them - can they?)

Thanks again for the JavaScript reminder,

Mrs H

PS I am right about you and Tiger and TFF and Ff 3.6x aren't I? If not, disregard above. If I am right - have you installed Ff 3.6.25 yet?

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 21, 2011 8:41 PM in response to Mrs H

No, can't use the same Profiles. But you can easily make a backup copy of the 3.6 Profiles (with Fx closed), put it somewhere and then use the original Profiles to try out TFF. You may find you don't need to go back to the 3.6. But if you do, you just use the backup copy you made. (After putting the now TFF dedicated Profile somewhere, if you like.) I found my 10.4 TFF (based on Fx 8.0.1) running better than the 3.6.

If there is a NoScript for Opera, I'd bet it's nothing like the real one. Probably just a simply toggle to whitelist entire sites, not scripts within.

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 22, 2011 12:47 PM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ wrote:

No, can't use the same Profiles. But you can easily make a backup copy of the 3.6 Profiles...

If there is a NoScript for Opera, I'd bet it's nothing like the real one. Probably just a simply toggle to whitelist entire sites, not scripts within.

I bet you are right about the NotScript (note how they change the name slightly) but since even it won't work for the version of Opera that can be used on Tiger I think it's a non-starter for me on the MBP.

Thanks for the simple directions for making 2 sets of Profiles for Ff. I was reading about having to use a profile manager and it seemed awfully longwinded.

If I follow this path Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/7xxxxxx0.default/lotsa' folders and files in here - is it the folder labeled Profiles or the next one 7xxxxxx0.default that needs to be duped? My guess is .default, but I'm probably wrong.

When I played a similar duping game while going from 3.6 to 7x on the iMac, and trying to keep 3.6 installed as well as installing 7, I found that 7 found the profile for 3 which I thought I had hidden and it changed it too (I tested this by adding a new bookmark) It was easily fixed by deleting the older app and being sure I only had one profile working - but it was a bit creepy. I think in addition to "put[ting] it somewhere" temporarily changing its name might not be such a bad thing - as long as I record the real name for later use. I assume just putting it on the desktop for the test might be good enough.

Thanks, as ever,

Mrs H

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 22, 2011 3:03 PM in response to Mrs H

It's the one called Profiles, which includes the one named ******.default. If you make a copy and move it out of there it should remain quiet. No need to change it's name, but if your experience suggests otherwise, you could just zip it.

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 22, 2011 8:07 PM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ wrote:If you make a copy and move it out of there it should remain quiet...

Thanks,

Mrs H

Adblock Plus freezes Firefox - force quit necessary - help please