My newly installed Firefox web browser (versions 2 and 3, does not matter) was deadly slow. I don’t mean the display of web sites, no, I am talking about pulldown-menus or opening tabs. (For example, bookmarks folder opens within 6 long seconds.) Several hours I was not able to tell why it acts that way. But now, I found out:
The system is protected with a host firewall. Ruleset:
iptables -t filter -F iptables -P INPUT DROP iptables -P FORWARD DROP iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT #mark iptables -t filter -A INPUT -m state \ --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT iptables -t filter -A INPUT -j REJECT \ --reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
But inserting this:
# Firefox seems to do stuff over loopback, # it's deadly slow without that setting iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
at “#mark” makes it work fast as usual.
Tell me, why are they doing ther menu communication via loopback network socket?
Just in case you might wonder, too.
Usn