Hi,

Thank you for reaching out! I've filed a WebCompat report for this. Let's see what our QA staff members there say.

Meanwhile, you can try using Chrome Mask for this website.

Just to note, it's most likely the website blocking Firefox 115 ESR based on the User-Agent string, a kind of issue we can't prevent from happening. We can fix it once it's confirmed, though.

no, Chrome mask did not work

Hm, ok, could you please try the following troubleshooting steps then:

1. Please check if you have Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) enabled. You can do that by clicking the shield icon in the left part of the address bar.
   • If ETP is enabled, try disabling it.
2. If the problem is not fixed, try clearing Firefox cache.
3. If it does not help, try clearing cookies and data for the website you experience troubles with (warning: you will be logged out on this website).
4. If it also does not help, try running Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode. If the problem doesn't persist, please follow the steps from this article to troubleshoot further.
5. If nothing from the above helps, try creating a new Firefox profile and check if the issue persists there. If it doesn't, you can start copying files from your old profile to the new one to identify which one causes the issue. See this article on what files to copy.

Does any of the above help? Looking forward to your update on how it goes!

First, it turns out that Chrome mask is not accepting any website inputs, so that does not work. I tried the others with no luck.

This problem relates to many commercial sites: Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco, and many other. But it doesn't affect most grocery and and general merchandise stores (Walmart, Target, etc).

You don't have permission to access "http://www.lowes.com/Search=snow%20shovel" on this server. Reference #18.1c9533b8.1771790334.13ea45f9 https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.1c9533b8.1771790334.13ea45f9

This happened after a recent update. The current version is 115.32.1esr.

None of the steps recommended by Denys helped. This does occur for a new clean profile.

It's not related to the IP address because these sites can be accessed from other devices on the same home network that use different versions of Firefox.

Some person mentioned that "Reference 18" means the website is using an Akamai CDN and Akamai has either rate-limited requests from what it thinks are "you," or it thinks you're a bot.

no, Chrome mask did not work

I've just realized that you have to clear cookies and data for that website first, and enable Chrome Mask. (Because once you get the error message the info about blocking you seems to be stored somewhere in cookies.) Does that work?

As I said, Chrome mask is installed, but is not accepting website inputs. I enter "www.godaddy.com" in the field to save sites, hit return, but it never shows up as a saved site and will not activate on that page.

As I said, Chrome mask is installed, but is not accepting website inputs. I enter "www.godaddy.com" in the field to save sites, hit return, but it never shows up as a saved site and will not activate on that page.

You should be able to just toggle the switch while visiting the website. See the screenshot.

yes, it will toggle on from the mask icon. But I still get "Access denied"

Even if you clear cookies and data beforehand?

yes, cleared data and cookies. Still rejected access

Greetings,

I don't know if my problem started on February 19, 2026, as was the case with the OP, and I certainly don't (directly) use Godady, but I'm having similar issues that I started noticing around the same date.

So far, ordering pages on the websites of Walmart* and Vitacost don't work with either Firefox 115.33.0esr (64-bit) or pre-Chrome Edge Version 109.0.1518.140 (Official build) (64-bit), and accessing most of the website for Bestbuy* doesn't work either. For example, the login/guest page for Vitacost displays an error message almost exactly identical with that reported by lyleleverich, i.e.:

   Access Denied
   You don't have permission to access "http://www.vitacost.com/MyAccount/Login.aspx?" on this server.
   Reference #18.7018d017.1772340915.f93f2221
   https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.7018d017.1772340915.f93f2221

N.B. The above error is identical with both Firefox 115.33.0esr (64-bit) and Edge Version 109.0.1518.140 (Official build) (64-bit), both running on the last non-garbage version of Windows, Windows 7 Pro (64-bit) (Service Pack 1).

Anyone wishing to duplicate the problem can go to

   https://www.vitacost.com/MyAccount/Login.aspx?target=/

click on the "our Guest" link in the sentence "Don't want to register? Continue your order as our Guest.", and bob's your uncle.

Given that this problem occurs on two elderly browsers, but not on a third elderly but not too elderly browser, and given that the problem seems to have occurred recently, I assume the problem has to do with some sort of incompetent web filtering technology incompetent retailers have begun implementing incompetently. I'd welcome a more astute analysis. An solution would be an unexpected, but most appreciated, bonus.

Thanks in advance.

Outis

• You can't imagine how embarrassed I am to have to publicly admit that I've tried to visit Walmart and Bestbuy. How declasse! Oh, how the unmighty have fallen! Woe is I! ;-(

Unfortunately, more and more websites are starting to drop Windows 7 support. What you can try is changing the browser User-Agent with add-ons like Chrome Mask or User-Agent Switcher and Manager.

Dear Denys,

User-agent switchers don't seem to work anymore, as well as Chrome Mask. All these imitations cannot pass authentications anymore. Some websites, such as Chase.com, stopped working with this ESR version awhile ago, but they didn't accept Chrome on Win 7 even before. This didn't affect any commercial sites though. This particular problem manifested after a recent Firefox update (less than a month ago).

You wrote:

It's most likely the website blocking Firefox 115 ESR based on the User-Agent string, a kind of issue we can't prevent from happening. We can fix it once it's confirmed, though.

Have you confirmed the issue or are going to do it? Are you going to implement a fix to allow to change the user-agent string if indeed this causes this problem or whatever needs to be done?