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FF 70.0 ETP even at Standard setting does not work with NordVPN browser extension; sites cannot be reached; time-outs common.

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With Firefox 70.0 and ETP sites load slowly or more often will not load: server cannot be reached / time out / retry. This happens when using NordVPN browser plugin. Setting ETP to Standard did not resolve problem; deselecting ETP for a particular site did not resolve the issue of slow loads and time outs; only disabling NordVPN browser plugin brought relief but raised security issue. I have advised NordVPN technical team which so far has no solution. Does Mozilla since the User Fora provided no useful information. Thanks.

With Firefox 70.0 and ETP sites load slowly or more often will not load: server cannot be reached / time out / retry. This happens when using NordVPN browser plugin. Setting ETP to Standard did not resolve problem; deselecting ETP for a particular site did not resolve the issue of slow loads and time outs; only disabling NordVPN browser plugin brought relief but raised security issue. I have advised NordVPN technical team which so far has no solution. Does Mozilla since the User Fora provided no useful information. Thanks.

All Replies (5)

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Hi rapley, could you do a test:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to test some problem site(s).

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like Oct2019, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Launch profile in new browser button.

Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.) Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test -- only install/activate NordVPN.

Do problem site(s) work any better in the new profile without your regular settings and other add-ons?

If you prefer "strict" Content Blocking/Enhanced Tracking Protection, could you test that, too?

When you are done with the experiment, you can close the extra window without affecting your regular Firefox profile. (Oct2019 will remain available for future testing.)

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Thanks for quick, clear and concise reply to my question on FF 70.0 and its ETP feature that does work well with NordVPN browser extension.

On the new profile test, only the IBM Security Rapport showed as a disabled extension.

I have tired setting ETP to its non-tracking "Custom" setting while leaving the NordVPN extension enabled. This has resulted in better site connections with limited time outs experienced.

If I disable NordVPN and leave ETP at "Standard" sites load normally, as in pre-FF 70.0 days. However, there in no secure transmission of data.

To my mind the problem is related to the way ETP processes tracking data for the respective site and its interaction with VPN software. There would also appear to be issues with the archtecture of FF 70.0 and how it communicates with VPN software, since as noted above, even with the no-tracking settings in ETP, sites load more slowly than with prior releases of FF.

This issue has been raised in early community posts and resulted in updates to accommodate VPN and FF interactions.

The ball is in the Mozilla court to address FF 70.0 connection issues.

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Just to be clear on the test results:

New Profile + NordVPN extension + Standard ETP => slow connections

Other than the change to cookie blocking, I'm not sure ETP is doing anything different than Content Blocking in Firefox 69. Does it make any difference if you switch off the cookie block in Custom?

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Thanks for the continued and highly appreciated advice.

I just cleared the cache but not cookie data since that would affect access to some content.

Under ETP "Custom" all cookie and tracker options are unchecked.

Sites still load more slowly than prior versions of FF so there would appear to be the need for Mozilla technical to look into how FF 70.0 communicates with resources in contrast to earlier versions. ETP got much coverage on release but are there other changes that affect how extension interact with resources.

Thanks, again

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Hi rapley, you could file a bug report. The developers can advise on how to extract performance data or other diagnostics that might help.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/