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iCloud > Private Relay breaks Firefox when accessing company internal websites

Firefox Blocked application/service/website
jbr replied
bpkmadden
bpkmadden

Hi,

I have been struggling for months and months with Firefox on macOS. I have been the only user in our company struggling.

Our IT has been constantly attacking me for using Apple macOS Betas and iOS Betas. And many people in the company have assumed the problems are related to macOS DNS issues.

To try to solve the problems, we removed my Fortigate hardware vpn. We set me up with a new wifi router.

I am on macOS 27 Developer Beta 5.

Brave can access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. Chrome can access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. Safari could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. Firefox could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com.

I have been struggling for a long time. Today Safari was unable to access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com, both of which are internal Tom Sawyer Software web sites. I finally realized that I had iCloud > Private Relay turned on and I decided to try turning it off.

Good news Safari could now access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com.

I went about my business trying to debug other problems because Firefox on Windows 11 also could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. I have a brand new Windows 11 setup on another laptop. Turning off DNS over HTTP in Firefox on Windows 11 solved the problem so now the Edge, Chrome, Brave, and Firefox browsers could all access our internal Tom Sawyer websites, good news!

Then at the last minute, because I became curious, I did a test and I turned off iCloud > Private Relay and Firefox suddenly could access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com on macOS.

I then turned on iCloud > Private Relay and Firefox suddenly could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com on macOS.

I quit and restarted Firefox in between each change of settings for iCloud > Private Relay.

I did this Private Relay on and off a couple of more times, yes turning it on breaks Firefox on macOS when accessing internal company websites.

This reminds me of the old days where Windows and Internet Explorer were intertwined. Apple is doing something similar to what Microsoft used to do in the bad old days with Internet Explorer.

I've been literally struggling for months and months, and now I use Brave happily. I'll hope my Firefox problems are now solved but the Firefox team should work with Apple and address this iCloud > Private Relay problem together.

Good luck!

Thanks, Brendan Madden CEO Tom Sawyer Software

Hi, I have been struggling for months and months with Firefox on macOS. I have been the only user in our company struggling. Our IT has been constantly attacking me for using Apple macOS Betas and iOS Betas. And many people in the company have assumed the problems are related to macOS DNS issues. To try to solve the problems, we removed my Fortigate hardware vpn. We set me up with a new wifi router. I am on macOS 27 Developer Beta 5. Brave can access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. Chrome can access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. Safari could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. Firefox could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. I have been struggling for a long time. Today Safari was unable to access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com, both of which are internal Tom Sawyer Software web sites. I finally realized that I had iCloud > Private Relay turned on and I decided to try turning it off. Good news Safari could now access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. I went about my business trying to debug other problems because Firefox on Windows 11 also could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com. I have a brand new Windows 11 setup on another laptop. Turning off DNS over HTTP in Firefox on Windows 11 solved the problem so now the Edge, Chrome, Brave, and Firefox browsers could all access our internal Tom Sawyer websites, good news! Then at the last minute, because I became curious, I did a test and I turned off iCloud > Private Relay and Firefox suddenly could access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com on macOS. I then turned on iCloud > Private Relay and Firefox suddenly could not access process.tomsawyer.com and build.tomsawyer.com on macOS. I quit and restarted Firefox in between each change of settings for iCloud > Private Relay. I did this Private Relay on and off a couple of more times, yes turning it on breaks Firefox on macOS when accessing internal company websites. This reminds me of the old days where Windows and Internet Explorer were intertwined. Apple is doing something similar to what Microsoft used to do in the bad old days with Internet Explorer. I've been literally struggling for months and months, and now I use Brave happily. I'll hope my Firefox problems are now solved but the Firefox team should work with Apple and address this iCloud > Private Relay problem together. Good luck! Thanks, Brendan Madden CEO Tom Sawyer Software

All Replies (1)

jbr
jbr
  • Topp-10 bidragsyter

Generally speaking using some form of private DNS use over public infrastructure will always break, if the external routing service doesn't know your internal rules (and both of the technologies mentioned use resolving logic of their own).

I think the correct way is for your IT to set the local domain prefix for resolving via DHCP, and then these would be excluded at least from DNS–over–HTTPS in Firefox (for iCloud+ Private Relay you'd need to reach to Apple Support).

In general check DNS over HTTPS (DoH) FAQs (e.g. "split horizon" behavior) and wiki.mozilla.org/Security/DNS_Over_HTTPS/Heuristics for the decision points, and firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/networking/dns/dns-over-https-trr.html#excluded-domains for the prefs related to it.

If you have "special" handling of public TLD hosts internally, your IT can roll out Firefox with enterprise settings to skip such hosts.

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