The "Access Denied" message with a Reference # usually indicates that a website's security system (Web Application Firewall) thinks you are a bot or attacker rather than a normal user. Let's see whether we can figure out why.

Some possible issues to consider:

(A) If you are using a VPN when accessing these sites, try without the VPN.

When you are using a VPN, your IP address is from a remote system used by many strangers. So if that IP address is temporarily banned due to someone else's activity, that also will affect you. If you need the VPN, try selecting a different server or exit node in your VPN software.

(B) If you have customized any privacy preferences that affect browser requests -- for example, modifying your "user agent" or referring site header -- you may need to undo those changes

Also, some add-ons may modify headers in a way that looks suspicious to these systems. We can't really tell how your browser identified itself to the problem site based on how it identified itself to this site, because add-ons are restricted in how they interact with this site. Can you think of any add-ons you use that might make privacy-related tweaks to your requests?

(C) If you have Firefox set not to accept ANY cookies, that also could be a problem for some sites

(D) Maybe your requests are modified by an intermediary (such as a proxy server, your security software, or an interloper)

Although most people are not intentionally using a proxy server, Firefox may discover one set up in your system settings. Sometimes forcing Firefox to ignore those settings helps with weird connection issues. Here's how:

Open the Settings page using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > Settings
• (menu bar) Tools > Settings
• type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it

In the very tiny search box at the top of the page, type proxy and Firefox should filter to the "Network Settings" section of the page.

Click the Settings button, change the top setting to "No Proxy" and then click the OK button at the bottom of the dialog to save your change.

Any difference?

Thank you Mr. Scher,

Lotsa people by that name in MoCo Maryland!

Your VERY thorough reply likely does NOT fit my situation since I used Firefox to sign into the site YESTERDAY and NOTHING changed since that sign in.

Firefox had NO problem yesterday!

I generally accept cookies and then clean them nightly. Yeah, not good, I know!

I am NOT using a VPN or other scrambler.

an "interloper"? OIY!!!! That's not at all a terrifying thought.

I will try again after my online classes today.

Again, THANK YOU! Arthur

You can try these steps in case of issues with webpages:

You can reload webpage(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

• hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
• press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
• press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the Cache and remove the Cookies for websites that cause problems via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button (Settings), click the padlock icon (Clear cookies and site data) for the domain in the selected tab.

"Remove the Cookies" for websites that cause problems:

• Settings -> Privacy & Security
  Cookies and Site Data: "Manage Data"

"Clear the Cache":

• Settings -> Privacy & Security
  Cookies and Site Data -> Clear Data -> [X] Cached Web Content -> Clear

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache

Start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration or if userChrome.css/userContent.css is causing the problem.

• switch to the Default System theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
• do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Troubleshoot Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-extensions-themes-to-fix-problems

You can check for issues with Enhanced Tracking Protection. Firefox shows a purple shield instead of a gray shield at the left end of the location/address bar in case Enhanced Tracking Protection is blocking content.

• click the shield icon for more detail and possibly disable the protection

You can check the Web Console for relevant-looking messages like blocked content.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/total-cookie-protection-and-website-breakage-faq
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/trackers-and-scripts-firefox-blocks-enhanced-track

You can remove all data stored in Firefox for a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History -> Show All History" or "View -> Sidebar -> History").

Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox for this domain like history and cookies and passwords and exceptions and cache, so be careful. If you have a password or other data for that domain that you do not want to lose, make sure to backup this data or make a note.

You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of involved files.

If you revisit a 'forgotten' website, data for that website will be saved once again.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-browsing-search-download-history-firefox

Thank you Cor-El

THANKS to all who answered my question!

The problem seems to have resolved itself with the next update of Firefox.

BTW, I have had this problem before and been told by several website techies that Firefox is usually the problem.

If anyone else has the same problem, next time, try Google Chrome or, gasp, whatever MS is now pushing.