Hi nauta, your Firefox identified itself as the "beta" version of Firefox 57. That's now nearing actual release, so it should be in pretty good shape by now.

whenever I click on a link, bookmark or even the home page (Duck Duck Go) Firefox comes back with an error button saying that the 'server' cannot be found. I have to click some four or five times for Firefox to go to the desired website. Admittedly this does not happen all the time, but it does happen most of the time!

It's difficult to explain how Firefox might lose its ability to access the network so often.

Do you connect directly to websites? What I mean is, do you use any private VPN, or proxy server, or peer-to-peer network (e.g., Hola), or onion routing (e.g., Tor)? In that case, the problem may be associated with a different network than your own service provider's network. You could try connecting directly and see whether that makes a difference.

Speaking of connections, you can check your settings here:

You can check that here:

• Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
• Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
• Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it

Firefox 56-58: In the search box at the top of the page on the right side, type proxy and Firefox should filter to the "Settings" button, which you can click.

Firefox 38-55: In the left column, click Advanced. Then on the right side, with the "Network" mini-tab active, click the "Settings" button.

In All Versions: The default of "Use system proxy settings" piggybacks on your Windows/IE "LAN" setting. "Auto-detect" can lead to a flaky connection. You may want to try "No proxy".

Add-ons also can affect the routing of your connections. You could test in Firefox's Safe Mode. In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the option/alt key when starting Firefox. (On Windows, one holds down the Shift key instead.)

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

Hi jscher2000, Thank you for your quick response. I don't knowingly use a proxy of any kind, but I checked Settings, as you suggested, and found that 'Use system proxy settings' was selected - I'm not computer literate enough to know if this is OK or not. Incidentally, we use a wired Ethernet at home connected to a router - it normally works fine. I don't have any add-ons or extensions, and the only plug-ins are a Cisco OpenH264 video codec, a Google Widevine thing and a Shockwave Flash (which asked me to update). I hope that when Firefox 57 is released the problem is sorted - I wasn't aware I had a beta version running.

jscher2000 was not providing just information he wanted you to do things. Please reread what he has suggested and the cure maybe there.