Firefox won't load home page on startup when it's GMail

[ThisIsMadness91]

For the last few years, I've had GMail set as my home page in Firefox, and Firefox is set to show the home page when it starts (unless I choose to save the open tabs before closing the browser). But for about a week now, when I start Firefox for the first time after starting up my PC, it tries to connect for about a second before opening the new tab page instead of GMail. Strangely, if I close the browser without loading any pages then open it again, GMail loads.

I tried restoring the home page to the default start page, and the default page loaded every time on startup. This morning, I set my homepage to Google before switching off my PC and heading out for a few hours. I just got back and started everything up, and Google loaded right away.

Thanks in advance for any support you can provide.

 

[Anak]

I use Firefox (FF) and have the same home page as you (gmail), and I've noticed that behaviour shortly after the stories came out about the POODLE attacks, and I updated to FFv34, 34 is the version where FF disabled SSLv3 by default.

I looked at the SSL settings in about:config and there's too many to try and re-figure their settings for now so I went to TLS and bumped up both my security.tls.version.fallback-limit and security.tls.version.min from 1 to 2 and left the security.tls.version.max at 3. The reason I increased the first two is; As POODLE grew the talk around TLS was that TLS1 was close to being cracked.

I'm going to let the settings run for awhile and see if it helps and I'll post back after a few days or so. In the meantime what I do if gmail doesn't open and I get a blank tab is, go up to the home button on my bookmark bar, click once and gmail opens up.

Related Links:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/982368

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/688207

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1043677

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
That is interesting I never thought to add gmail as a homepage :/
I've always just kept it as a favorites bar listing and If I want to stay logged in I simply check the box to remember me and make sure I don't delete the cookie
Never failed with or without ssl-3 disabled
Mind you this is with ie10 not Firefox
Cheers.

 

[ThisIsMadness91]

Thanks for the info, Anak. Here's hoping it works for you.

 

[Anak]

TZ,

I've always had my browsers set up to go to my email when opening that's what I like to check first thing, my email. It's just a matter of personal interests and preferences. I know of some users that are in the financial market so they have theirs open to their favorite trading house to get the latest on the stock markets. I believe having a personalized start tab is a lot better than a plain Jane IE or FF start tab.

I like many others in the related links I provided have no problems with IE10 or any other browser, and I along with others didn't have problems with FF until mozilla started locking down SSL in v34 of FF, and some users are having problems with various HTTPS sites not just gmail.


TIM (ThisIsMadness91),

You're welcome, so far it has although its only been a handful of times, It could be that https gmail won't send the proper authorization when TLS is lower than 2, usage and time will tell.
Some of the users in the related links are having success clearing their cache and cookies at every shutdown but that to me seems a bit drastic.
Mozilla tells you to re-enable SSL :shock: for those sites by going to Tools, Options, Advanced, Encryption, and then disable when off the site. that post was in 2010 and I'm not sure when that tab/setting disappeared but its long gone, anyways that's a bit drastic also, and as you have found, a restart of FF will fix it.

I still don't like all the true/false settings for FF's SSL settings in about:config, but I haven't found a reference to cross-check them to see if I want/need to change them, I know I'll get in touch with Callender he might know.

 

[Callender]

TLS settings in firefox

Would you try downloading these two add ons? You can remove them when they're no longer needed.

The two add ons in this post #7:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...onnection-paypal-post2996196.html#post2996196

Then choose the options in Post #9 in the same thread. Would you list the cipher suites as shown in these two images:

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...22743878t-untrusted-connection-paypal-rc4.jpg

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...3878t-untrusted-connection-paypal-non-rc4.jpg

Other than that you can try a fresh install after backing up your profile. Details here:

Backup Firefox current profile:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...onnection-paypal-post2996255.html#post2996255

Remove Firefox:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...onnection-paypal-post2996273.html#post2996273

Reboot and reinstall Firefox. Run MozBackup to restore only your bookmarks and extensions.

Reason: Constantly updating Firefox can screw it up eventually.

 

[Anak]

Thanks Callender, I just stopped by to check my emails, will try to have answers by tomorrow.

BTW; gmail opened okay again.

 

[Callender]

An alternative to gmail home page?

Check out this software. It works okay:

Gmail Notifier Pro - Professional Gmail notifier for Windows

 

[kodi]

I have Gmail Notifier Pro installed and it will load a blank new tab page often.

 

[Callender]

Gmail Home Page Firefox

I have Gmail Notifier Pro installed and it will load a blank new tab page often.

Is it possible to confirm the following?

SSL version and cipher suite used when connecting to Gmail via your browser:





Also any "New Tab" settings. Mine are like this:



Gmail Notifier Pro opens mail fine in my browser although I prefer to set it to read mail from within the application rather than launching a browser.

Edit:

So far it's opened gmail in my browser every time without problems.

 

[Anak]

Callender, with the demise of all versions of SSL, can you explain the usefulness of the Calomel SSL Validation tool in layman terms?

I've read over the more page in extensions and been to the Calomel site, but if no one's using SSL anymore, what's the point?

 

[Callender]

Calomel SSL Validation

Well I suggested installing the Calomel SSL Validation add on just to see if it reports the encryption method that's being used by the browser to access the problem site. It does show if SSL or TLS is being used and the version.

Will post more later.

 

[Anak]

Thanks, it wasn't the first DOH! moment I've had today, and I'm sure it won't be the last. :haha:

Here's mine with FFv35.0.1 and gmail:






I'm going to have a talk with my banking security dept. though, Calomel shows red and cipher suite is 5.8 with them and that's with running IBM's Trusteer.

 

[Callender]

My bank is the same (Red) - using Cyberfox



It's even worse if I use Firefox with it's default settings



I'm still trying to get my head around the subject and have been reading a lot and messing about with settings. As far as I can work out it's best to disable SSL 3 entirely and only allow strong cipher suites. If you encounter a site that you cannot access then temporarily enable SSL 3 and/ or weaker cipher suites but not on sites where security is a must.

 

[ThisIsMadness91]

Would you try downloading these two add ons? You can remove them when they're no longer needed.

The two add ons in this post #7:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...onnection-paypal-post2996196.html#post2996196

Then choose the options in Post #9 in the same thread. Would you list the cipher suites as shown in these two images:

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...22743878t-untrusted-connection-paypal-rc4.jpg

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...3878t-untrusted-connection-paypal-non-rc4.jpg

Other than that you can try a fresh install after backing up your profile. Details here:

Backup Firefox current profile:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...onnection-paypal-post2996255.html#post2996255

Remove Firefox:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...onnection-paypal-post2996273.html#post2996273

Reboot and reinstall Firefox. Run MozBackup to restore only your bookmarks and extensions.

Reason: Constantly updating Firefox can screw it up eventually.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Here are the screenshots you requested.

 

[Callender]

Cipher suites look okay - same as mine anyway! Have you got New Tab page disabled?

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...-home-page-startup-when-its-gmail-options.jpg

 

[ThisIsMadness91]

Not all of those options appear for me. Is that because I'm not using Cyberfox?

 

[Callender]

FF Tab Options

Not all of those options appear for me. Is that because I'm not using Cyberfox?

Yes, sorry - I was forgetting that Firefox has less options!

FF Tab Options:



When was the last time you clean installed Firefox? I remember you were having a few issues with it some time ago. It might be worth backing up your profile, bookmarks and extensions then going down the full Firefox removal route before clean installing it.

 

[ThisIsMadness91]

I can't remember when the last time I did a clean install was. I'll keep it in mind. Also, GMail loaded when I opened Firefox for the first time this morning.

Update: I was having trouble with another site I often visit and had to do a clean install to fix it. Thanks for recommending MozBackup. It took a while to figure out, but something in the general settings must have changed because when I restored everything except those, the problem went away. I dont know if the two add-ons I installed last night had anything to do with it. Whatever the case, it's a relief knowing that all I have to do is reconfigure a few settings. It's much better than having to log back into lots of sites and reinstalling lots of extensions. I'll see if this solves my GMail problem as well.

 

[Callender]

Well if you just keep a backed up copy of your profile you can clean install Firefox at any time and just restore the stuff that you want to keep or selectively restore certain items just for test purposes.

I really wish that I could recreate your problem on my machine but so far Gmail homepage works every time. Also I've used the portable version of Firefox for test purposes.

All I can really suggest if the problem continues is to monitor each Firefox browser launch with Fiddler and allow https monitoring (but not https decryption) and see what information shows up in the panes when the problem occurs.