"Address Not Found" errors

[Bikewer]

Since installing the latest version of Firefox, I've been plagued with these error messages.

Often, I'll have to click the "try again" box 6-7 times to make a connection. This appears to be a widespread problem, and no one seems to have a good suggestion.
Thinking it might be a Zone Alarm issue (as some forums have suggested) I deleted all the Firefox entries in ZA's program control box, and let it re-connect by itself.

No help.

There does not appear to be any problem with my cable internet connection; I have run the PC Pitstop Optimize program and done the online bandwidth test as well. Seems normal

Highly irregular, some sites connect normally, some don't.

[wuschel]

Highly irregular, some sites connect normally, some don't.
World and dog are updating their DNS servers ATM, so it might be a temporary glitch with your ISP resulting from that (DNS resolution has got nothing to do with bandwidth). If the issue doesn't self-correct within the next 72 hours, there is reason for concern.

[six7s]

If you suspect that you have a Firefox-related bug, try accessing the same sites (at the same time) from Firefox and another browser and see if there's any difference

[TheDaver]

I haven’t had any such problem related to Firefox, but I’ve been having similar connection issues with my router on and off for the last five years or so.

Basically, my ISP aspirates asinus testes.

[Bikewer]

There are a lot of queries in this regard on the official Mozilla help forum, everyone reporting pretty much the same thing.

So, a bit of an update.
I determined that whatever was going on must be with my computer. When I hooked up my old laptop to the same cable modem, I had
no difficulty with the "address not found" problems.

I uninstalled Firefox 3, and went back to two. No improvement. Also, the problem was popping up on IE. I had done just about every diagnostic I knew how to; everything
seemed to be fine. The Windows "network diagnostic" tool returned excellent results, as did a ping tracer I use occasionally for gaming.

However, I had recently updated my free AVG anti-virus to their 8.0 version. I noticed that I was for some reason not connecting to the update server.
I sent AVG a note on this, with no reply.

I had seen a post on one of the numerous forums I'd searched through about problems with AVG 8.0, so I uninstalled that and installed the "Avast" anti-virus.

Big improvement!

I now am able to connect with sites instantly about 95% of the time, and when I do get one of the Address Not Found errors, just one "refresh" will normally complete the
connection.

I've been fooling around with Second LIfe lately, and I was getting booted from the server constantly due to lost connections. Last night I was able to be
online for a couple of hours with no problems.

So was it AVG, or is that just serendipity with my cursed service provider improving things? Who knows...

I like AVG, I've used it for years. May try it out again at a later date.

[Giraffe107]

We had that problem with AVG too- after disabling the 'link checker' it seemed to clear up. We also disabled the 'Download Embedded' add-on, and that's fixed all of the problems we were having.

[elgarak]

I don't believe that the current rush of 404s and similar errors are based on local machine, e.g. anti-virus software or firewalls.

I get them at home with my Mac using Time-Warner/Roadrunner. I don't get them at work. Most of the time, I can get access a few minutes later with hitting re-load.

I suspect it's problems/maintenance/updates of DNS's, considering that a possible attack-vector has been highly publicized recently, and every company has released updates of their server OS's to address this.

[PixyMisa]

We had that problem with AVG too- after disabling the 'link checker' it seemed to clear up. We also disabled the 'Download Embedded' add-on, and that's fixed all of the problems we were having.
AVG 8's link checker is made of pure evil. They've actually disabled it by default now because it causes so many problems.