Firefox didn't know what program to use to open GQWeb and you pointed it to Firefox? Sounds like we probably need to undo that.

Could you open your application handler preferences and look for any that point to Firefox itself.

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Applications

It might speed up the process to type firefox into the search box that appears above the list and look for any non-plugin, non-preview entries.

Can you track it down?

If necessary, you can clear all your saved associations and let Firefox restore the defaults. As you come across new file types, you can re-save your preferences again. The usual way to do that is as follows:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup (you'll see all the file timestamps update), then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old

Then restart Firefox.

By the way, if you prefer to change the page that displays when you open a new tab, there's a hidden setting for that:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

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

(3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter your preferred page:

• Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
• Blank tab => about:blank
• Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
• Any other page => full URL to the page

Press Ctrl+t to open a new tab and verify that it worked. Fixed?

If Firefox ignores the setting, one of your extensions may be overriding it. You can review, disable, and/or remove extensions on the add-ons page:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > in the left column click Extensions

I suppose the real question is not the looping but why the site isn't loading correctly. Three thoughts on that:

(1) Third party cookie setting. You might need to liberalize it. Please see this article: Websites say cookies are blocked - Unblock them.

(2) Ghostery or another privacy-related extension. If an add-on is preventing the site from receiving all the usual information it expects to be able to access, this could behave the same as a restrictive cookie setting.

Could you try the site in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Use Troubleshoot Mode in Firefox.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using

Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled (Flash and other plugins still work)

In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Any difference?

(3) Cruft. When you have a problem with one particular site that previously worked normally, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

(A) Bypass Firefox's Cache

Use Ctrl+Shift+r to reload the page fresh from the server.

Alternately, you also can clear Firefox's cache completely using:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the Network mini-tab > Cached Web Content : "Clear Now"

If you have a large hard drive, this might take a few minutes.

(B) Remove the site's cookies (save any pending work first). While viewing a page on the site, try either:

• right-click and choose View Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
• Tools menu > Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"

In the dialog that opens, you can remove the site's cookies individually.

Then try reloading the page. Does that help?

This can be caused by corrupted cookies or cookies that are blocked (check the permissions on the about:permissions page).

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/fix-login-issues-on-websites-require-passwords

Clear the cache and cookies only from websites that cause problems.

"Clear the Cache":

• Firefox/Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:

• Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Jscher2000: Thank you very much. It was "Ghostery", not as friendly as Casper! After I disabled it I was able to access the application used to properly open Edline and tag it. AddOns will be added to my due diligence required list. However sometimes you don't know until you show (trial and error). I was going in circles just like the "loop" before your much appreciated post. Running in "safe mode" really threw some light on the problem. Penarg