Hi whitehairedgeezer2, several users have reported delays with the initial connection in Firefox recently. It seems to mostly affect users who have security software either filtering their web access (such as Avast, AVG, Kaspersky) or overriding Firefox's normal approach to verifying certificates.

If you use a product like that, could you test with interception of secure (HTTPS) requests disabled to see whether that makes any difference? You can find some information on product settings in this article: How to troubleshoot security error codes on secure websites.

Am using Kaspersky Free version. Tried interception of secure (HTTPS) requests disabled and also switched off Kaspersky altogether. No change in startup delay

Could you check the following setting:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste enterp and pause while the list is filtered

The security.enterprise_roots.enabled preference has a default of false, which means that Firefox will use its own certificate store for verifying site SSL certificates.

When this preference is "modified" to true, Firefox will use the system certificate store. You can double-click to restore the default value.

If the preference status is locked, that usually indicates an external configuration or policy file is altering the setting.

security.enterprise_roots.enabled is set to true and locked security.certerrors.mitm.auto_enable_enterprise_roots is set to default and true

If you check the built-in about:policies page does the "Active" panel indicate there is a Policy related to either:

• ImportEnterpriseRoots
• certificates

If not, some security software may be using an Autoconfig file. (more details later, have to leave the keyboard)

All there is on the Active policies page is the line: The Enterprise Policies service is inactive.