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Adblock Plus starts late, impacting initial page

Posted: Thu May 01, 2014 12:57 pm
by Oded
Launching FireFox 29 to a specific web page would open the page before Adblock starts. This causes the page to appear as if Adblock is not active. Reloading the page - works.
Is this a FireFox 29 limitation??

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Thu May 01, 2014 7:37 pm
by tsunami2311
I have notice the when you first load Firefox 29 Adblock plus freeze the browser up a sec while it first loads each and everytime you start firefox, but if you disable adblock plus the freeze is not there, This was not there in 28 firefox, Im not sure if this same thing you experience but seems like it

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 12:04 am
by Taipan
Oded's description sounds like the consequences from changes like these:

development-builds/faster-firefox-startup
https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/117

ABP 2.6 became available via AMO today and I did some testing with Firefox 28. Using an 8 yo single core desktop and a 2.5 yo dual core notebook (7200 RPM drive). Same Firefox and extension configs (moderately heavy protection) on both. Internet connection via cable testing around 29.1 Mbps down, 5.85 Mbps up, 12ms ping with closest test server. ABP 2.5.1 worked fine during the startup window and blocked what it should across many sites. ABP 2.6 failed to block things it should on every site I tested.

I did some more explicit testing against a lightweight localhost server using custom test pages. Under my test conditions, all of which included clearing history between each test as that is what I set Firefox to do when it closes, ABP 2.6 on the old box had a roughly 4.7 second window of vulnerability and ABP 2.6 on the newer box had a roughly 1.4 second window of vulnerability. Which may not sound like much, but that was enough to assure that ABP 2.6 failed to do its job each and every time it started up to load a page with blockable items. Some days I start it once and leave it running. Some days I probably start it three or four dozen times. Most days somewhere in between . I think the consequences could add up to very many undesired exposures over time.

I find the "No, this won't be optional" comment worrisome, as it suggests ABP will have this type of problem in all future versions. I have some generally faster systems but they are running strongly encrypted storage systems and one is loading things over a network as well. So I'm not very hopeful about those being more reliable.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 5:26 am
by Oded
Exactly!

"The only disadvantage should be that Adblock Plus is ready a bit later and the first page loading might still have ads".

The first page indeed loads will ads! That's what I see,

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 8:53 am
by Gingerbread Man
This is a known side-effect of an intentional change, therefore it's not a valid bug report. Moving to the Firefox forum for discussion.

If you have Firefox set to restore previously open tabs when it starts up,
  1. Under Options/Preferences - Tabs, make sure "Don't load tabs until selected" is checked.
  2. Exit Firefox with a blank tab as the selected tab.
If you have Firefox set to open your homepage when it starts up, there's no convenient solution that I can think of. You could
  1. Add the -offline parameter to the Firefox shortcut, so that it starts in Offline mode (meaning it won't load anything that's not in the cache).
    https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozi ... ne_Options
  2. Install the Work Offline add-on and click its toolbar button to go online.
    https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/work-offline/
  3. Reload the page.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 9:06 am
by Oded
These are not solutions but workarounds.

It is very common to right click on the firefox icon on the task bar to open firefox along with one of the pinned or frequeny URLs. The new change makes the page load with Ads.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 9:12 am
by iX9
Dont think so!
I downgraded to ADP v2.51 and it dont impact initial page!
No matter of FF version! Including FF 29.
It is AdBlock v2.6 issue, not FF!
Howgh.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:59 am
by DickM
There is no question that AdBlock Plus 2.6 is starting late compared to the previous version. It is noticeable and very annoying. Happens with FF 28 and 29. Ads appear then disappear when FF is launched. I have turned AdBlock off for our small company because everyone is complaining. Does anyone know of another good ad blocker that works well with FF?

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 1:20 pm
by Luxferre
I have the same problem with Pale Moon 24.5.0 ,but not with Firfox 29.0.
I downgraded to ABP version 2.5.1 in Pale Moon which is my default browser.
If this is an intentional change than it is very wrong.
Sadly,after many years of using ABP I'll see what competition is offering.
I'm very disappointed.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 1:30 pm
by Taipan
Good point about restoring previously open tabs. Would that one setting cover all the bases (restore after normal close, restore after crash, restore after extension causing a restart, etc)?

I think you can have Firefox set to open your homepage when it starts up as long as that homepage doesn't load something you want ABP to check and you don't click on anything too soon. A buddy of mine that updated before me hadn't noticed this issue yet because he uses his own homepage that is stored on his own server.

Unfortunately, you won't know whether or not something is getting past ABP 2.6 unless you are attentive. Anything that isn't visually obvious, including but not limited to some privacy threats and some stealthy drive-by malware situations, would require inspecting network activity. My guess is there are large numbers of users who have been become vulnerable through an update but don't know it.

I think this makes for a totally valid, as well as high priority, bug report. The logical solution, on paper for the moment, is to figure out a way to make the consequences a configurable item. So that those who want faster Firefox startup can achieve that (at the price of ABP not working correctly for awhile during startup) and those that want ABP to work correctly can achieve that (at the price of slower Firefox startup). Maybe there is some way to do this?

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 4:18 pm
by Taipan
Looks like support for the -offline parameter was removed from Firefox builds at some point. It also appears that Firefox doesn't remember the state of the Work Offline menu item across closes. So unless I'm missing something, I think you'd HAVE TO use an extension to manage things if you want to use the work offline work-around.

I saw a bugzilla comment about making localhost communications a special case. After checking the Work Offline menu item, an attempt to access a live server via http://localhost/index.html caused display of the "Firefox is currently in offline mode" page. However, loading file:///C:/index.html succeeded. So I put <img src="http://localhost/img.jpg" /> in that html file to see what would happen. Despite Work Offline being checked, loading file:///C:/index.html resulted in a webserver logged request to http://localhost/img.jpg and the image was displayed. So there may be some edge cases where the work offline work-around will fall short.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 8:13 pm
by tusnami2311
my homepage is the default Mozilla Firefox Start Page which isnt even a live PAGE nor is ADblock plus blocking anything. and the browser litterly freezes for sec while loading ADblock plus upon FF startup Disable Adblock no freeze at all.

And this whole thing about FF start up faster now as reason why I noticed it now as opposed no notice it before is like cause FF startup just as fast or well slow as use always has , IE and Chrome start up faster then FF.

Re: Adblock starts late with FireFox 29, impacting initial page

Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 1:44 am
by lilsting10
edit: looks like my issue isn't related to this, and isn't yet fixed :(

Re: Adblock Plus 2.6 starts late, impacting initial page

Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 9:47 am
by Gingerbread Man
Since this is a known issue, this topic is now temporarily sticky for higher visibility.
Taipan wrote:Looks like support for the -offline parameter was removed from Firefox builds at some point.
I doubt it. It still works for me in Aurora (Firefox 31).

Re: Adblock Plus 2.6 starts late, impacting initial page

Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 12:24 pm
by Anonym
Given this is the byproduct of an intentional change, I think the real question is "Will this be fixed" / "Can we have an option not to behave like this and make Firefox wait for ABP filtering before showing the first page"?

On behalf of those that use ABP as a tool for privacy (with lists such as EasyPrivacy), I have to say this really wasn't a well thought-out "intentional change" for all of us...