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Why does Firefox's home page redirect after modem problems

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by mozfellow

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I recently accessed a page (a Verizon modem URL) in my modem settings that Firefox reported as untrusted. I went ahead and had FF set an exception, after which FF displayed the modem setting page. However now I find that when I go to my default FF home page (www.google.com), I am redirected to the modem page FF had set as an exception.

I see now that I have Google and Verizon cookies that persist. I can delete them in: "Options > Privacy > History > Remove individual cookies." But when I close and restart FF, they are back.

I've also had: "Options > Privacy > History" set to "Use custom settings for history" with "Keep until I close Firefox" set for quite a while. Even using that setting now, the cookies persist on restart, and my home page redirects to the Verizon router setting page.

I've also set a different home page (www.yahoo.com), and when FF boots, it has no problem displaying it. But when I click on my bookmark to take me to Google, I'm redirected to the Verizon modem settings page again.

I backed up and deleted "AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\(current user)\places.sqlite" and restarted FF. Of course all my bookmarks and history were gone, and FF created a new places.sqlite file. But I was able to set www.google.coom as my home page and had no problems being redirected. I then restored the original places.sqlite file and have my bookmarks and history back again.

I understand I can edit places.sqlite with the SQLite Manager addon. But I have no idea how to track down the culprit in there if it indeed is located there.

Does this sound like something I might be able to repair?

Thanks for any feedback on this

I recently accessed a page (a Verizon modem URL) in my modem settings that Firefox reported as untrusted. I went ahead and had FF set an exception, after which FF displayed the modem setting page. However now I find that when I go to my default FF home page (www.google.com), I am redirected to the modem page FF had set as an exception. I see now that I have Google and Verizon cookies that persist. I can delete them in: "Options > Privacy > History > Remove individual cookies." But when I close and restart FF, they are back. I've also had: "Options > Privacy > History" set to "Use custom settings for history" with "Keep until I close Firefox" set for quite a while. Even using that setting now, the cookies persist on restart, and my home page redirects to the Verizon router setting page. I've also set a different home page (www.yahoo.com), and when FF boots, it has no problem displaying it. But when I click on my bookmark to take me to Google, I'm redirected to the Verizon modem settings page again. I backed up and deleted "AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\(current user)\places.sqlite" and restarted FF. Of course all my bookmarks and history were gone, and FF created a new places.sqlite file. But I was able to set www.google.coom as my home page and had no problems being redirected. I then restored the original places.sqlite file and have my bookmarks and history back again. I understand I can edit places.sqlite with the SQLite Manager addon. But I have no idea how to track down the culprit in there if it indeed is located there. Does this sound like something I might be able to repair? Thanks for any feedback on this

Chosen solution

The problem was fixed by clearing : "Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content > Clear Now"

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All Replies (3)

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The places.sqlite database stores history and bookmarks. I don't think it is the source of the redirects.

If you do a search on your modem model, do you find any posts or articles on this kind of issue?

Your modem might have a feature to redirect 404 errors to its own search page. Hopefully you can disable that feature if that is what's happening.

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It's only Firefox on this particular PC that's doing this jscher2000. IE & Chrome have no problems going to www.google.com. And Firefox on other PCs on this home network don't have the problem.

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Chosen Solution

The problem was fixed by clearing : "Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content > Clear Now"