
How to stop Firefox from making automatic connections - bsilvereagle
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-stop-firefox-making-automatic-connections
======
131hn
Congrats on making this public and clear. Is there such a precise (&exhaustive
) document for google chrome/ edge ?

~~~
Cieplak
[http://superuser.com/questions/633648/how-can-i-change-
the-d...](http://superuser.com/questions/633648/how-can-i-change-the-default-
website-connection-timeout-in-chrome)

~~~
heinrich5991
What question does this answer?

------
5ilv3r
"The OpenH264 codec is not distributed with Firefox but gets downloaded at the
first start of Firefox. In case you want to prohibit that, you will have to
preconfigure the browser and set the media.gmp-
gmpopenh264.autoupdatemedia.gmp-gmpopenh264.enabled preference to false. "

I have to disable it before I START firefox?? How?

~~~
mnarayan01
In your Firefox profile directory, there's a file called "prefs.js". Of
course, that (obviously) requires you have a FF profile, so I'm not sure how
much use it would be.

I guess the "easier" way would be to just disconnect your internet, and then
install and start Firefox.

~~~
dmckeon
Alternately, before starting Firefox:

    
    
        echo 'user_pref("media.gmp-gmpopenh264.autoupdatemedia.gmp-gmpopenh264.enabled", false);' >> user.js
    

Preferences set in the user.js file are applied after those in prefs.js, but
are persistent - while the current prefs settings are saved to prefs.js when
Firefox exits, the prefs in user.js are re-applied on every restart of Firefox
- so you would have to edit user.js to persistently change Firefox' behavior.

Thus user.js is handy for knowledgeable users, but could be a bit of a trap
for less capable users. ("I can't make it change!")

While I'm on about:config stuff, a handy way to search for config variables is
a shortcut:

    
    
        <DT><A HREF="about:config?filter=%s" SHORTCUTURL="ac">[ac] about:config filter</A>
    

invoked by putting, say,

    
    
        ac media.gmp
    

in the address bar.

------
5ilv3r
I'd like a disable-all button for web development.

Also to have the old behavior back for soooo many things... like hitting enter
in the URL bar actually load the URL even if it didn't change.

~~~
joshvm
Not sure if this is what you need, but you can try:

browser.urlbar.unifiedcomplete = false

This should bring back the old search bar behaviour so you don't need two
keypresses to load a webpage.

~~~
therealunreal
Thank you!

------
yyin
To me this is poor design. I prefer to have everything turned off by default.
Then I have to learn how to turn things on.

In the end, this teaches me much more about controlling the program's
behaviour than having developers make decisions for me. But that's just my
opinion.

~~~
Qwertious
Not sure of the exact figures, but a large portion of computer users never
change the options for their programs (nor are they particularly able to).

For these users, sub-optimal settings are permanent, so you want to turn
everything on.

This is one of the problems with a single program being shared by several
demographics.

------
hackuser
It would be great if non-technical end-users could control their enviroment
and disable these things; this page, while a great step forward, still is much
too long and complex - it's too long for me to read the whole thing.

Firefox needs a button in preferences that says 'enable only connections
specifically initiated by the user' \- worded better and with appropriate
warnings of functionality loss. Or an add-on would be great.

~~~
xlayn
I disagree, there is a lot of functionality aimed to keep users safe, if "non-
technical end-users" can't understand and go through them; they may be better
leaving them alone. On the other hand also prevents those users from changing
something and find non expected behavior.

~~~
hackuser
> if "non-technical end-users" can't understand and go through them; they may
> be better leaving them alone.

I understand this reasoning, but I think the pendulum has swung too far from
_end-user control_ to a patronizing attitude where we tell users what is good
for them - in fact, we decide for them without even telling them.

For example, in this case perhaps some users value confidentiality over system
integrity or over performance; Mozilla doesn't empower them to make that
decision; the users don't even know that a decision has been made. Mozilla
could facillitate end-user control by making the options safe and by
explaining them clearly.

There is a balance of course, and I'm just using this issue as a example -
it's hardly the most critical.

~~~
chc
Turning Firefox into Config Simulator 2016 would just alienate nontechnical
users, not empower them.

I don't see how it's patronizing to say, "You can set this the way you want if
you care, and people who don't care aren't faced with a bunch of choices they
don't want."

------
edieveder
They should put these settings in the setup.

