Why are AskWoody pages misbehaving?

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[WCHS]

I am not sure where to post this question/problem. It has to do with misbehaving AskWoody pages, a Windows Defender full scan threat-report, and a Firefox profile file.

I have descriptions, screenshots to illustrate the misbehaving pages, screenshots of the Windows Defender threat report, and links to two articles about Windows Defender mis-identifying a file as a threat — hoping to get some help in getting the AskWoody pages to stop misbehaving.

Why-are-AskWoody-pages-misbehaving

post-edit: I should add that Firefox was open when I did the Windows Defender full scan on the laptop with the misbehaving AskWoody pages, but Firefox was NOT open when I did it on the laptop that does not have misbehaving AskWoody pages.

• This topic was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by WCHS.

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Have you tried restoring the profile files from quarantine and testing the link again ?

1 user thanked author for this post.

WCHS

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Alex5723 wrote:

Have you tried restoring the profile files from quarantine and testing the link again ?

I’m pretty sure it’s too late to do that. I thought Win32\Phish!MSR was really on my device. I read the link to Windows Defender’s description of its dangers and so I removed it from my device. So, the profile file can’t be restored now via Windows Defender.

It’s not in the recycle bin. Would it be some place else — in some folder somewhere where I could find it and put it back in the right place? Seems kinda tricky, if possible.

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Hi WCHS:

There might be a problem with Firefox v128.0.3.

I haven’t had issues with the AskWoody site (yet), but I could not use the MS Answers forum yesterday at https://answers.microsoft.com/ with Firefox because of slow connections (e.g., login prompts and pages would eventually display but wouldn’t render correctly) and I had to switch to MS Edge to post on that site.  That MS Answers site is working correctly with Firefox this morning but I’ve noticed glitchy behaviour on a few other sites since updating to Firefox v1280.0.2 and/or v128.0.3.

I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I live in Canada and my Firefox setting at Settings | Privacy & Security | DNS Over HTTPS | Enable DNS over HTTPS is set to Max Protection, and the default DNS provider in Canada is CIRA Canadian Shield (i.e., not Cloudflare).  I haven’t tested to see if changing those security settings makes a difference.
———–
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4651 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24060.7-1.1.24060.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.6.117-1.0.1280 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Microsoft * Firefox v128.0.3 * Microsoft Edge v127.0.2651.74

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WCHS wrote:

my Firefox setting at Settings | Privacy & Security | DNS Over HTTPS | Enable DNS over HTTPS is set to Max Protection,

I have that setting, too.

I’m in the U.S. and the default DNS provider is Cloudflare. But, I don’t think the problem can be traced to the DNS provider, since all other https addresses encounter the same default DNS provider and those websites display with no problems.

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I’ve noticed slow responses and extremely long waits when trying to connect to various Microsoft sites including learn.microsoft.com and devblogs.microsoft.com with FF 128.03. Connections and website response to/from other sites have not exhibited the same behaviors. Consequently, I believe this is unrelated to Firefox.

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On the first – if I’m reading it right – I believe that a message got pulled into quarantine. Can you send me the link in your email and I can test?

Often someone posts, the email system then fires off the notifications, THEN the spam filter kicks in and checks the post/person and sucks it over into quarantine. You as a normal user get a blank spot, not a post.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Can you send me the link in your email and I can test?

I’ll forward it to your AskWoody email address.

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Susan Bradley wrote:

You as a normal user get a blank spot, not a post.

I don’t get a blank spot. The pdf file illustrates 3 things that happen when I arrive at the address under the link in my AskWoody email.
1) the usual orange panel on the right has a white background, not orange
2) clicking on the email link puts me at the top of the topic, not at the place where the e-mail says the post is. In this particular case, I should’ve landed at the very last post in the topic.
3) a buff-colored/very light orange block at the bottom of my screen appears when I try to scroll down from the top. If I keep scrolling, my entire screen is this buff-colored block.
4) eventually, the page stops misbehaving and it appears as it should and I end up where I should be.

I do not get this misbehavior on my other laptop, which gets the same AskWoody email but did not encounter the Windows-Defender-false-positive-threat like this laptop did.

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I see what the issue is. That’s a long long post with lots of comments.  We need to break it up and archive the old posts out.

This is a “suggestions for improvement”.  Bottom line it’s not your computer or browser, it’s just a very long forum post that needs to be streamlined.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

3 users thanked author for this post.

satrow, TechTango, WCHS

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Susan Bradley wrote:

I see what the issue is. That’s a long long post with lots of comments. We need to break it up and archive the old posts out.

I was curious to see what would happen if I clicked on an email link that arrived at a topic with far fewer posts. I found such a link in my email. Clicking on it did NOT bring up a misbehaving page.

So, why was there not a misbehaving page on my other laptop when I clicked on the same link in the same email? In both cases, the link was to land on the same post in the same topic that had innumerable, innumerable posts.

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Bottom line it’s not your computer or browser, it’s just a very long forum post that needs to be streamlined.

What a relief!! I was thinking that my Firefox profile had been ruined because Windows Defender had removed the designated (false-positive) Firefox file from my device and I’d be faced with building a new Firefox profile with all the old settings and all the about:config preference changes I had previously made. And I have no idea how to make a new profile without uninstalling Firefox and starting over again from scratch!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Lars220

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WCHS wrote:

I was thinking that my Firefox profile had been ruined

Hi, WCHS, it is a good idea to Backup the Firefox Profile occasionally, maybe once a month, or whatever schedule might work for you. Here are Mozilla links to information on Profiles:

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

Recovering important data from an old profile
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

Note that the Profile folder can be very large, mine is 218 MB. Store the backup in different places, like important computer Windows OS backups, 3 places is best.

Amazing Truths Revealed: Link to Simply Magnificent AskWoody Knowledge Bases

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WCHS

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Lars220 wrote:

Hi, WCHS, it is a good idea to Backup the Firefox Profile occasionally … 3 places is best.

I was hoping that some fellow AskWoody subscriber would point me in the right direction. What 3 places do you suggest?

There’s a bit of a problem, though. When Windows Defender reported a threat-file in the profile, I elected to remove it from my device. However, everything I have read about the threat indicates that it was a false positive. As a matter of fact, when I did a Windows Defender full scan on my other laptop four hours after I did a full scan on the device where the threat turned up, it did not report the threat { I think because the Windows Defender definition file had been updated in the interim.}

So, that means that my device now has a profile without the false-positive threat. I haven’t noticed any problems in FF’s performance since the removal of the “threat”-file [other than when pages misbehave in AskWoody, which SB has said can be pinned on AskWoody, and not Firefox].

The removed file was in …Firefox\Profiles\mydefaultfile\cache2\entries. Windows Defender must have removed the cache2 folder {and everything below it} because it’s no longer there. So, if I made a backup it would not have the cache2 folder. But, as I said, I don’t know if its absence makes a difference in the long run.

I wonder if after making a backup, I could create a new profile? And would it have a cache2 folder that I am missing? And would it have all of the settings that I had in the old profile? Or would I have to compare the old profile and the new profile and recover from the old profile what I need in order to have all of the settings that I had had?

Or is a missing cache2 folder inconsequential (meaning that I can just keep going with the profile I have now)?

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WCHS wrote:

Or is a missing cache2 folder inconsequential (meaning that I can just keep going with the profile I have now)?

The cache2 folder is actually in Users\Yourwindowsusername\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

\nameofyourdefaultfirefoxprofile.

The main part of your profile is in the \Roaming folder with the other parts of the file path remaining identical, except the profile in the \Roaming folder path has no cache2 folder. In other words, Users\Yourwindowsusername\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

\nameofyourdefaultfirefoxprofile.

That folder is nothing more than the cache for the current session. If you have things set correctly in the privacy and security choices within FF’s settings menus, the entire cache2 folder disappears right after you close FF, and gets reconstructed the next time you start FF.

I just looked at the WordPress support forum you linked to in your OP and the item you got has now been confirmed as a false positive, per one of the forum’s moderators who also happens to be an Admin for WordPress.org, so no worries!

I hope this helps!

3 users thanked author for this post.

WCHS, Lars220, satrow

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Hi @Bob99:
I don’t know why I couldn’t find the cache2 folder when I last posted. But, I think you are right … that I was looking in AppData\Roaming (instead of AppData\Local), because when I looked under AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles today, the territory was familiar: two x.default-xxxxxxxxxxxxx folders whose names I had seen previously, one of which had today’s date and the other a date from two years ago. And today when I looked under AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles there was only one profile with today’s date — not the territory I had seen before.

In any event, I just now looked for cache2 in the local folder with FF open, and indeed the particular Windows-Defender-removed file under …\cache2\entries is there today with today’s date and a very recent time. And that particular file is there with FF closed (I must not have the settings to remove it when FF is closed). So, although I told Windows Defender to delete the false-positive file from my device last week, it came back and always keeps current.

Thanks for helping me figure out that I had looked in the wrong place for the cache2 folder, for explaining what the cache2 folder is, and for reassuring me that I needn’t worry about having removed that file containing that so-called threat.

It looks like I can turn over a new leaf now — taking precautions and making a backup of my Firefox profile.

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Lars220

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WCHS wrote:

What 3 places do you suggest?

At least 2 removable media like usb connected HDD or SSD that you can keep in separate places, and if possible an off site location.  3 places have been recommended, but at least 2 is a good idea. Floods, Earthquakes, Fires, Hurricanes, Tornados … its a dangerous world.
More information in following links:

Why you should store your data in 3 separate locations
Written by Zaid Ammari  –  October 19, 2015  –  tech.co

What is the 3-2-1 backup strategy?
January 02, 2024  —  Acronis

Best 5 Offsite Data Backup Solutions for Business & Individual
by Jonna  –  Last Updated May 31, 2024  –  cBackup

Amazing Truths Revealed: Link to Simply Magnificent AskWoody Knowledge Bases

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WCHS

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Susan Bradley wrote:

I see what the issue is. That’s a long long post with lots of comments.  We need to break it up and archive the old posts out.

This is a “suggestions for improvement”.  Bottom line it’s not your computer or browser, it’s just a very long forum post that needs to be streamlined.

Susan, you mean that opening a comment URL in a browser loads ALL comments in a post ?

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Alex5723 wrote:

Susan, you mean that opening a comment URL in a browser loads ALL comments in a post ?

When it’s misbehaving, it does. But, it’s not supposed to. Susan explains in her post #2691767 what she thinks is happening. Whether she found out that “getting sucked into quarantine” was the real reason or not, I don’t know.

All I know is that the misbehavior still happens. I noticed it again just today after I restarted my device. (I usually let it ‘sleep’ overnight over the course of a week or so, but I usually restart after a week or so of that to get rid of any crud that’s collected.) And so, I’m asking whether the plan to break up the topic and archive out older posts has happened yet. Because if it has happened, that was supposed to fix the misbehavior.

Just so you know, this misbehavior doesn’t last long. Eventually, everything ‘rights’ itself and the page/screen lands at the comment URL in the browser.

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Alex5723

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WCHS wrote:

When it’s misbehaving it does

Sorry, I don’t believe any browser does.

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Alex5723 wrote:

Sorry, I don’t believe any browser does.

See my linked pdf file at #2691657 for the evidence.

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Long pages aren’t good for the site or for users.  We like to break them up.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/ios-ipados-and-watchos-updates/

Try it now please?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Try it now please?

Yes, I did and my comments are at #2694794.

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