Firefox making excessive connections to 1e100.net domain
Recently, I've seen Google searches slow down. At first, I took it as problems at Google. However, when Google started to ask me to verify I am a human more often than not, I decided to investigate the matter.
NetLimiter is showing a HUGE number of connections Firefox is making to the 1e100.net domain. Even with an empty tab open only. Refer to this 1e100.net explainer article to understand what 1e100.net is and does.
Is anyone else seeing this or has something happened to my Firefox 103.0.2 (64bit build)? Bitdefender isn't telling me it has been infected with anything so...
How do I start Firefox in a safe mode? i.e. without extensions enabled. I want to try seeing whether if its one of my addons.
Wšě wotmołwy (5)
Ok. Just found out how to start in troubleshooting mode.
Didn't help. Still lots of 1e100.net connections.
Addition: Started Microsoft Edge (Chromium). It maintains a consistent 11 connections only to 1e100.net no matter how many Google searches I throw at it. There is something bizarre happening in this Firefox installation. I've counted a consistent 20 connections but it jumps to 30/40+ whenever I do anything with Google.
Any ideas?
Wot laugher změnjeny
You can do a malware scan just to be sure.
Thanks @cor-el. Bitdefender already in place, I was doubtful but tried Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes isn't picking anything up either.
I've disabled a couple of addons and will monitor the situation for a few days.
Interestingly, Thunderbird also maintains around 12 connections to 1e100.net. With Firefox and Thunderbird together, no wonder Google thinks I am trying a robot or a DoS client of some kind!
Wot laugher změnjeny
Looks like all roads lead to Google. What about Brave and Waterfox?
Wot jonzn4SUSE změnjeny
Interesting read... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=What+is+1e100.net&t=ha&va=j&ia=web