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Firefox slow wireless but fast wired. No issues running IE wireless. Tried system restore, fact. reset, turned off accl, disabled addons, run in safe mode.....

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So i have an HP e118dx running on windows 8.1 with very little software on it. Currently running FF 37.0.1 and in wireless mode it always hangs up, runs slow, or times out. When plugged in it runs just fine. Can get on net using IE via wireless and no issues. So it seems to be something specific to FF on the wireless side. Thought it might have been my wireless card but running IE just fine seems to rule that out.

Have already tried system restore a few times, factory reset, turn off hardware accel., run in safe mode(FF), disabled add ons and nothing seems to help. If i have tabs open while wired, then go wireless and refresh the pages or browse on the already open pages i tend to get a couple minutes of trouble free experience before it slows to a halt again.

To recap....FF on wireless=slow and wired=fast. No difference when using IE wireless---always fast.

So i have an HP e118dx running on windows 8.1 with very little software on it. Currently running FF 37.0.1 and in wireless mode it always hangs up, runs slow, or times out. When plugged in it runs just fine. Can get on net using IE via wireless and no issues. So it seems to be something specific to FF on the wireless side. Thought it might have been my wireless card but running IE just fine seems to rule that out. Have already tried system restore a few times, factory reset, turn off hardware accel., run in safe mode(FF), disabled add ons and nothing seems to help. If i have tabs open while wired, then go wireless and refresh the pages or browse on the already open pages i tend to get a couple minutes of trouble free experience before it slows to a halt again. To recap....FF on wireless=slow and wired=fast. No difference when using IE wireless---always fast.

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Have you checked the modem as well? The problem could be there.

Step one, Unplug the power to the modem. Do a slow count to 10. Plug in the modem and wait for it to reboot.

Step two, Call your ISP and have them check your service and the modem.

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Just to clarify......when using IE the net works fine for me whether wireless or wired. ONLY when using FF wireless does it act up, yet when wired in using FF all is well.


I don't know how to put in any clearer than that. If still not good enough maybe someone can explain to me how calling the ISP/modem hard boot have anything to do with this???

If running fine on one browser yet not on another off the same modem, then it seems to not be an issue with the modem itself.

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Sorry, I had not seen that part. I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.

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Troubleshooting network connection can be tricky, however the only thing that I can think of that would contribute to a slower connection in Firefox on wireless are the number of connections that are being made.

  • Have you increased the number of pipeline connections that a dns can make, or altered any of the about:config entries in Firefox?
  • Have you cleared the temp files or local dns cache as well?
  • Is a proxy being used? In Options > Advanced > Network > how firefox connects, change the option to "No Proxy"

Did this help?

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Not sure what you mean by # of connections being made. Not sure if that means tabs open, or folks using the actual wireless network. A while back when i was going through this with the isp i got a crash coarse on how to go into the modem and check a bunch of different stuff, as well as reset things. When looking in there only 1 or 2 computers showed on the network. The network is password protected......i guess protected only to the extent that a pswrd can. Not certain if someone nefariously connected somehow.....didn't show up when looking for users on the network though.

The first bullet point......Not sure how to do any of that so i'd say no. Second bullet point......Yes, did lots of clearing temp files, caches, history, etc. along with systems restores and factory resets. although not exactly sure what you mean by dns cache. Might have done this but don't recall specifically seeing that. Third bullet point.....It doesn't make any difference on this end whether its on no proxy, auto proxy, manual proxy. While i have no idea what all this stuff does/affects performance i played with it on all different settings and nothing changed here. Put it back to no proxy.

The thing is even when my wireless FF is acting up other devices in the home can be on the wireless with no issues. Think the other devices are using Chrome and some phone wifi hookup. Keep in mind if i switch to IE on the same device with FF windows open the IE will run just fine. At any given time there should only be 1-4 devices on the network so i'm guessing that shouldn't overload anything. Besides none of the other devices ever seem to come into this issue.

There always seems to be some issue that pops up after updates. Can't ever just leave working things alone.