When accessing certain websites, I am met with a random string of characters in the browser window. What could be causing this?
When trying to access certain websites, http://redditenhancementsuite.com/ or http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the- ... od#3293733 for example, all I get is a random string of characters in my browser window like the following:
‹??XmoÛ6?þ>`ÿáª/Ý€ZÊËú²Í6Ð%ÍZ¬íŠ&A±O?%Ñ??‰TI*®‡ýø='J¶”8^†._L‰wÇ{yîá)ÓG§¿Ÿ\üñá?œŸx÷vþí7ÓÂWeû+Eο•ô‚ ïë‰üÜš›YtbŽ—ÚO.ÖµŒ(?O³ÈË/>aåŸ)+„uÒÏ?¿˜ŒˆØˆWŸ”ó2Ï•§Wº?:“?ŒÐy£Œœ&a?‚¥Ò×de9‹œ_—Ò?Rúˆ<ŽêNÈœ‹š°r1‹¬t1?Îÿ›Z?$kœ7ÕÄ?p#¹úÜH»ž4jr?¿ˆ?ŸÅa7?‡S.³ªöC/®Ä?o#r6›Eœ Ÿ’$3¹Œƒ¹83Uoù0~?WJÇWpvš?Exý»É•ëÜqïŽÅ‡¹º5?/Y–r"Ž(×^enìàÃÍUâ+ƒ‹?ÆVwNOŠ€A8’š| aÅï€Åšhš«›v%0Ú‚"A†Uµ?UQ•XJ—”fiâZ/#Z©Ü?³èèé?@$Õ²ðxx??—¹YÄ‚\!qÛjmMÌØÞa<õzÂÛ#ûÇ°ÙÛçug?²?ìà„i?"˜¶‘¶Q!B-BTÓ†?‘ð‡¶˜?"ìÍeµh¢hþÚTh"?Ï!žC%7+]?‘‡?zuaYEóÓnsŸ…?Ÿá~?I8ë?÷©@z²?ºWùøêœÎðžOe›å_ !Qûds“5Ì Â+£;·N‡ïö)‹Zu*/?ŒÙ'˜¬Ôµ?ÿ?»?ŸEŠ¥Ð×Ñü?ÞîS?©i|?¯GÂÓ€-ì4 …fL/iêŸ.®?(?óf€xÿŸ+BØÀVq8ç¬þ??ÄÇ€?g?Œí?°OЄÀ¿Ò©¥–9žœÒKÇüíL œ rz鳊,×?šPý%ÒRR.\‘?aó?âçMÊ|–Jò†rå èP?òèK‘£îw?xg¬€…*œŽp…LÍ¥Ü%xYçÂÃé÷òFZ\?9‹‡Ëd‡Ù?SÕ¥ô?ÎÛmÀ—šóƃ®?ÜZˆ¶§ŽÝ]’yÁíuOçcwÜùÏÜvþ‹£?™ ×ûR"?NN4¿‰Cýz&xšK¿ u?ŒÜãVÚm|;<ÌÛ;ošÔœ="" ò1êgôt;®]ôÍ+ÐÖ1]:0?ªŒ‘ÛpJç;G †ÑÆ«…‚%€‚広ÜȲ6T ?rawp?gYà??Üñ•9J†ˆ?®‘›“vŒ€Ó-_??ö›”5S˜?©cw\%Ê?~bÞE Ñ#@8B?šrÔ8D??GN?°fLï'¡×?S誇?#gCÑ1?+žU0óàò?ŒLÀG‰Ë?‡?Ó5?Á‚äºMËöÌ'H*ŸŽ…š?®‹ZT„)¹‘??ûˆ.P%£?îRU*\Äp?dÚ?Ï^J‡ëù«Áˆ‚õ7??ù0™Ý?ØvJ?2€—倕?:)*Î.œUºODÈïškÙ˜rú±§+TS#òÜè Zñ1£Ûš”ß—br?|‹F·”?òókºB’j‘]£\mMR?¢X?Šì\ãðÿ?o?žËJ42“9ÞÍùþè?oCÁ?í¢·ÁÁ?cÐ?X·ÃóæîK¶C$ý}ï8š?Gr·žål0 ŽäöL…#¹]£àHàAóßHãÎÐ7Úý—Io${ÏxÇùçaÎRÒç—ñ„P–VTøZ[RºÞŽ?Ý'ãjµŠ??|x@UÖø€5Õ݉óÜcö¡s“JÜVbNßm*70?Ý~x‚3l24?͇Olã{º|ƒ;•?ÂûüÊ…V²ÌÅÊ™¡ônßN[)zÉ??w?S§ÊÁÌ??â?ãÕø¹u°?ŠŠÉ?µÈoÒ}?‚?¿*þ?ò—ÔTÄ?
The characters change depending on the website. I've tried disabling all extensions and plugins, reinstalling firefox and reinstalling java to no avail. The issue seems to be isolated to firefox, chrome is able to display the webpages without a problem. The problem occures following a malware in infection which would redirect goolgle searches in firefox. It was dealt with using Malwarebytes Anti-malware and by removing some entries from C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file.
All Replies (6)
Can be caused by corrupted HTTP response headers that confuse Firefox and makes it show gzip data instead of expanding the text.
Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache.
- Press and hold Shift and left-click the Reload button.
- Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
- Press "Cmd + Shift + R" (MAC)
A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
Hi, I tried everything above but to no avail. Windows firewall seemed to be allowing Firefox through without it actually being in the exception list. However, I did remove Firefox but this time removing all profile data too. Reinstalling Firefox seemed to make the websites work. However I then restored my bookmarks, and suddenly the websites stopped functioning again, displaying the random string of characters. Could this be an issue with my bookmarks?
Still seem to be having the issue. Any help?
Does it help if you disable the compression?
Try to set the String pref network.http.accept-encoding to an empty string on the about:config page.
It was blank already.
You can try to check the HTTP response headers with the Live Http Headers extension to see what Firefox is receiving from the server.