Hi!

If you open a web site whose HTTP server isn't running, or after
different types of network errors, the displayed error message isn't
really helpful.  M$ Internet Explorer may display "Some kind of error
has appeared", but from Firefox, I actually expect something more
helpful, like libc's strerror() output for transport errors or
something like that.

Thanks,
	Jan-Benedict Glaw

How the following message can not be enough ?

Unable to connect

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost.

    *   The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
          moments.

    *   If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
          connection.

    *   If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
          that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

"While trying to connect() to foo.bar.com, the connect timed out."
...or, if the socket was set to non-blocking mode:
"While trying to connect() to foo.bar.com, the connect was aborted
 after waiting 2000msec."
"While trying to connect() to foo.bar.com, the connection was
refused."

...

Is this a locally generated timeout? ...or a RST because of a full SYN
queue?

I don't like poking around for a reason, but rather get the errno
value of whatever libc call actually failed.

The point is that there are basically two things to debug a
non-working connection: strace firefox (which isn't a really nice
thing to look at) or tcpdump the network.

So if Firefox would just print out the libc error that occured, it
would probably save the user from needing to go down into the details.

Thanks,
	Jan-Benedict

severity 352255 wishlist
retitle 352255 Not enough technical detail in network error message
thanks

Unfortunately that sort of terminology tends to confuse rather than
help the vast majority of users.

* Jan-Benedict Glaw (jbglaw@lug-owl.de) wrote:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS d- s++: a-- C+++ UL+++ P++ L++ E++ W++ N+ o K- w+
O? M++ V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP++ t++ 5++ X+ R tv++ b+++ DI+ D+
G e h! r- y+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Another example:

"Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for
this address in a way that will never complete."

What does this message tell me? What did Firefox receive? From where
to where does who want to redirect? How do I access the page source?

MfG, JBG

Hi!

As a further addition, I just happened to paste an invalid URL into a
newly created tab (into the display area, not into the URL input
field.)

This resulted in a "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." Alert
window, but the URL is nowhere displayed. It's text also doesn't make
it into the URL input field (at the top of the Firefox window), so
there's no way to see at a glance what actually was wrong with it.

MfG, JBG

For me, this does a google search, and the text is visible in the
google search box, the address bar (URL encoded), and in the 'Your
search' field.  What are we doing differently?

Hmm...  I've got two profiles on one box (one used locally, the other
one used on a slowish box via ssh-X11-forwardig.)  The local profile
does the error reporting, the remotely used profile also invokes
Google.

...diffing out the two prefs.js didn't bring up an obvious reason.
Though for the Google "help" thingie, that should be switch-off-able,
too.  After all, the URL is invalid, isn't it :-?

MfG, JBG

Dear Firefox/Iceweasel user,

Thanks for your interest in Firefox/Iceweasel and the bug report you have contributed.

Your bug report [0] was done for a version which isn't a part of debian anymore. Debian 4.0 (Etch) was released with version 2.0.0.3.

Please reproduce your bug on an updated version of Iceweasel and confirm it
still exists, or close it as irrelevant for recent versions.

If you don't know or are not sure how to update or close your bug report,
please contact me directly, and I'll help you.

IMPORTANT: In any case, please provide version info, as we use it to determine
the relevance of the bug.

As this bug is quite old, I intend to close it if you don't update your bug
report in the next 6 weeks.

This is the time line for the old bugs cleanup:
1. October 1st - first notice.
2. October 15th - Second notice.
3. October 29th - Third notice.
4. November 12th - Closing the bug.

Please help the Firefox/Iceweasel maintainer to help you (:

[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=352255

Dear Firefox/Iceweasel user,

Thanks for your interest in Firefox/Iceweasel and the bug report you have contributed.

Your bug report [0] was done for a version which isn't a part of debian anymore. Debian 4.0 (Etch) was released with version 2.0.0.3.

Please reproduce your bug on an updated version of Iceweasel and confirm it
still exists, or close it as irrelevant for recent versions. So far, 66 bugs
were confirmed and 27 bugs were closed.

If you don't know or are not sure how to update or close your bug report,
please contact me directly, and I'll help you.

IMPORTANT: In any case, please provide version info, as we use it to determine
the relevance of the bug.

As this bug is quite old, I intend to close it if you don't update your bug
report in the next 4 weeks.

This is the time line for the old bugs cleanup:
1. October 1st - first notice. - Done.
2. October 15th - Second notice.
3. October 29th - Third notice.
4. November 12th - Closing the bug.

Please help the Firefox/Iceweasel maintainer to help you (:

[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=352255

Dear Firefox/Iceweasel user,

Thanks for your interest in Firefox/Iceweasel and the bug report you have contributed.

Your bug report [0] was done for a version which isn't a part of debian anymore. Debian 4.0 (Etch) was released with version 2.0.0.3.

Please reproduce your bug on an updated version of Iceweasel and confirm it
still exists, or close it as irrelevant for recent versions. So far, 66 bugs
were confirmed and 27 bugs were closed.

If you don't know or are not sure how to update or close your bug report,
please contact me directly, and I'll help you.

IMPORTANT: In any case, please provide version info, as we use it to determine
the relevance of the bug.

As this bug is quite old, I intend to close it if you don't update your bug
report in the next 4 weeks.

This is the time line for the old bugs cleanup:
1. October 1st - first notice. - Done.
2. October 15th - Second notice.
3. October 29th - Third notice.
4. November 12th - Closing the bug.

Please help the Firefox/Iceweasel maintainer to help you (:

[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=352255