Does Firefox Interact With IE?

I've noticed the following weird behavior recently. I'll open FF, and find it quite slow...even if I go to a different web site, the cursor doesn't want to move quckly across the screen, I get the "hourglass ", successive pages/links open slowly, etc. I'll then close FF, and open IE6, which behaves normally. I then close IE and go back to FF....FF is now behaving normally, not slow at all. Any thoughts about what might be going on?

 

Chris,

This could be due to extensions, if you have them installed. As far as interaction between IE, and FF, no, they should coexist with no problem.

If you do have extensions installed, start uninstalling them first with Tabbrowser, and then Web Developer. If that doesn't help, then uninstall Prefbar. Do this one extension at a time, in order to decipher which, if any, might be the cause of the turtle-like behavior.

Let us know your findings.

Ramona

 

Ramona....no extensions. FWIW, I am on XP, using IE6 and FF 1.0.3 This problem only happens sporadically, I've tried clearing the FF cache to no avail. It usually happens late in the day, I wonder if Comcast could be the problem (but why only on FF, not IE?)

 

Very simple answer, I am sure that Comcast not only supports IE, but also expect that you use it.
This is very common with most ISPs. For instance, I can't call my ISP (Cox) and tell that I have problems with the browser or mail. I have to prove first that there is the same or some problem wiith IE or OE.
To my delight I have seen that IE or OE misbehaved at some websites, and, have been able to get some action.
I can give you two examples. One was to set up my e-mail account from beethoven.com(sort of a joke with my classical music friends) into the Mail Client. They specifically said that it could not be done in Netscape 7.x, and that I had to use Outlook Express. It did not work in OE, and one week later I received an e-mail telling me that I could set it up in Netscape.
The second one was with vh1.com which insisted in having me get WMP9 to see videos, although I had WMP10. I was amazed to see that I was not only getting the same response with IE6, which went a step further to tell me that I do not have WMP10 installed. Of course, it was installed, and I have been able to get videos since yesterday.

 

West....Comcast is fussy if you don't use IE, but FF isn't a problem...and from a tech perspective, I don't think it should be. And because it's a sporadic problem, I hesitate to blame them. I keep wondering if the two browsers share a memory location someplace, and one of them botches it up for the other.

 

You misunderstood what I meant. Comcast will support IE, and so you should not and do not have problems.
That does not mean that IE is sharing nothing more than the operating system.
However, Firefox which has been flawless, in my hands since v.0.1, has given me problems three time in the past two weeks. In each case, I could start it, and in each case, I found that one of the extentions was at fault.
I have never experienced the type of problem you describe, and the only time I ever open Internet Explorer is when I need to check some weirdness, but whatever it is the gecko program is no better nor worse off after I do that.
If you do not have any extention, I would not know. But, since it is sporadic, it may be a good idea to take note of what you are doing. Does it happen as soon as you open FF, or after you have been using it a while.
The cursor behavior is similar to that cause by McAfee AV on my old Win98.
And, of course, if you started ok, but developed the slows, then what about closing FF, and then starting again.
You may have tried al this, but I did not see it stated.

 

West....no extensions, problem starts as soon as I open IE.

 

Does it not contradict what you originally said?
I have no evidence of this. Firefox is my default browser, but I did use IE, which I found clueless. It wants me to install Flash and WMP, which I already have.
Go figure that.

 

Whoops....I meant it starts when I open FF...sorry

 

That's more like it. However, I don't see why you should have problems if you start with FF, and cure everything after being through IE. Same website and everything? I am not even going to attempt to guess.
But, I can't see how a common memory location being shared by both browsers could explain this. I do not use only Firefox1.03, but also two different "nightlies ", Mozilla1.7.7, and three Netscape7.2, and 7.02, alternating the use of the eight browsers (you can throw in Kmeleon for good measure), so, who knows maybe there is some "cleansing" going on. I go days without using IE.

 

As for being slow in Firefox, have you simply tried clear up your cache and history?
And check the Preferences of your Firefox,
Suggestion #0: try change the start up page to blank, quit and re-start Firefox, in case the first page you load is not well designed of have bad Java/Flash used.
Suggestion #1: try disable Java, quit and re-start Firefox, and see if speed improves.
Suggestion #2: try disable JavaScript, quit and re-start again.

If all fail, try a new Firefox profile.
If still fails, try clearing all cache, and re-install Firefox. (just install it over the current installation.)

Hope these help.