Firefox VPN popup problem with XP SP2 - FIXED

[FourWheelDrift]

My firefox has suddenly started playing up, refusing to access www.pistonheads.com saying it can't see "/." There's no "." in the URL obviously. The .co.uk works fine. Although for some reason my VPN connection is trying to login automatically everytime I open certain webpages and then tries to continuously try repeatidly even if I try to cancel it every 10s or so. I'm on constant broadband but it's only when I open an internet windows it starts to connect (pop up conection window with the connect, cancel, propertiies & help buttons at the bottom)

I can't find any option to stop it doing this, does anyone know how to?

Thanks

I'm on Opera posting this (.com and .co.uk both working fine)

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Tuesday 20th June 01:51

[FourWheelDrift]

Ok, on IE here now, Pistonheads.com is working again on Firefox but it's still making my VPN popup appear, it also happened on other site I have tested (although not google).

I have installed XP SP2 would that have changed anything (can't think how as it only effects Firefox)?

[pdV6]

What firewall do you use? XP SP2 will have added the Windows firewall "helpfully" for you automatically. Assuming you already have something else in place, disable the Windows firewall.

[FourWheelDrift]

That was the first thing I disabled

[FourWheelDrift]

Right as mentioned I have XP, run Firefox and also a VPN connection which is not always on. I had problems after installing SP2 that whenever I used Firefox and logged onto some websites (Pistonheads, Crash.net and some others) the VPN connection popup would appear and the webpage I was trying to look at would hang until I either cancelled the VPN or connected.

I have been puzzled over this (I'm not an IT person but I have some intelligence I use) and started to go through a few things, reinstalling Firefox - nothing changed. Email a techy friend who suggested reinstalling SP2 (I was going to do that tonight) and look at a "route print" to see if anything was amiss there.

Amended fix as the original fault returned.

I have been running the Firefox adblocker extension, which has up until now been blocking adverts from ad.uk.doubleclick.net because they are the most numerous and annoying on many websites. The blocked address was added to the "hosts" file in my system32/driver/etc folder. But it seems those adverts are relooping now to circumvent the blocking and it decided to find a new route via another gateway, being my VPN. I have removed the adblocker extension to Firefox, removed the block advert list from the hosts file and rebooted. All well now. Trying the MSXP SP2 popup blocker for now.

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Tuesday 20th June 17:00