In the last few weeks I have had increasing problems with websites that suddenly stopped displaying image files. These have included the BBC, Facebook and many others that have worked fine previously and applies whether I was using my regulare browser, FireFox, or any others, such as IE, Chrome and Safari.
I have repeatedly checked my firewall settings and reports: but they do not report any blocking actions having taken place (in fact, the firewall report does not list any events in the last 6 months) and I cannot find any setting that seems to relate to such behaviour.
However, I have now pinpointed the problems as occurring when I clear the browser cache; atter which previously woring sites suddenly refuse to display images that come from an associated image site. After that, the only way I can solve the problem is by setting the firewall security level to ‘Disabled’ and reloading the page. After that, I can reapply ‘Safe’ mode, and the site will behave normally.
But this is an infuriating hassle, not to mention dangerous. What can I do to fix it?
kevin, the firewall should have nothing to do with what is displayed across your browsers. The displaying of images and widgets on my browsers is controlled by using plug-ins such as privdog and noscript, along with custom browser settings such as (ask) to show flash, etc… Could you list the browsers you speak of along with their plug-ins and extensions?
This is my third attempt at a reply. The first time I accidentally closed the wrong browser while switching screens to get the browser info and the second time, after finishing my message and pressing ‘Post’ I was told I needed to log in again and, having done so, found that my post had vanished!
I’ve repeated such info as I have on browsers and add-ins below: but don’t think this is the problem, as 3 out of 4 of my browsers are used only for occasional testing of new web pages, and therefore have few or no add-ons.
This morning I noticed that the bbc news website was again missing some images. I tried pinging the image servers; which responded correctly even with the firewall on: but at first had no success: but eventually the images loaded.
Later, after Firefox had auto-updated itself to 28.0 I tried again, and noticed that some newer images were missing. I then tested as follows:
Tried to display one of the missing images in a new tab. Unable to load.
Pinged the image server. Worked OK: but image still wouldn’t load on screen refresh. Repeated several times with same result.
Disable firewall. Image loaded immediately.
Re-enabled firewall & went back to main new page. Test image now displayed: but others not.
Disabled firewall & repeated 5. Responded immediately & redirected me to main news web site.
Re-enabled firewall & tried to access other pages I hadn’t seen before. All images loaded promptly.
Any ideas?
Browser details:
Chrome 33.0.1750.154 m with a Skype extension, which is disabled
Safari 5.1.7, with no extensions
IE 8.0.6001.18702IC, with the following:
Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper 11.0.0.379
Easy-WebPrint 2.5.0.25
Spybot - Search & Destroy Configuration 1.6.0.0
Windows Messenger: Disabled
RealPlayer Download and Record Plugin for Internet Explorer 1.0.1.57
Spybot-SD IE Protection 1.6.0.0
Skype Browser Helper 6.11.0.13307
Skype Click to Call 6.11.0.13307
SSVHelper Class: Disabled
Java™ Plug-In 2 SSV Helper 6.0.310.5
JQSIEStartDetectorImpl Class 6.0.310.5
Sun Java Console: Disabled
Firefox 28.0
Lots of add-ons: but no practicable method of listing them, unfortunately.
This problem is persisting, and is definitely something to do with the firewall: but I can’t figure out what. All I know is that I can try till I’m blue in the face to load images from a website such as bbc news or weather, and it fails. But if I momentarily disable the firewall, then press refresh, the graphics will load. On reanabling the firewall, behaviour seems less predictable. Sometimes it appears to happily load other brand new images as I move to other pages on the site: sometimes it doesn’t!
I was having exactly the same problem with Facebook pages: but this appears to have righted itself somehow.
If I run the Java console whilst attempting to load a blocked image, I get the following type of message:
I have upgraded to Comodo Internet Security Premium version 7.0.315459.4132. Also, I was mainly using Firefox: but have just switched my default browser to Chrome. This morning, as a further check, I also updated Javescript to the latest version of Javascript. But all without effect: the problem sitll persists.
Please, can anyone suggest what is going wrong and how to fix it?
How do you update to the latest Javascript? Did you recompile chrome/firefox some how?
Javascript is not the same as Java.
Anyway back to the main topic of images not loading, are you using Comodo DNS? If so try disabling it. Under firewall settings are you using Website filtering? If so does the problem persist if you disable it?
As far as I am aware, I’m not using Comodo DNS. At least, I can’t find any reference to it on my system.
Website filtering was on. I had previously turned it on in an attempt to see if I could force Comodo to accept images from the BBC site. Turning it off made no difference, (even though I tried rebooting, just in case that was necessary to make this effective). So far, momentarily disabling the Firewall (normally in Safe mode) is the only thiing that seems to allow me to view the missing images.
Now that’s interesting! I just tried enabling Comodo DNS instead. And the BBC website, at least, is now working properly! I wonder what’s going on with my default system?
