Ancestry.com and Firefox

[Ed McKie]

I keep trying to use Firefox to access ancestry and cannot get past a message which comes up "you must allow cookies". I have allowed cookies $@##$#$
I have also put ancetry in specially to allow cookies, but I still get blocked.

Does anyone use Firefox with Ancestry and can tell me how to do it ?

thanks..Ed

[Procat]

Hi Ed,

I use Firefox and get onto Ancestry fine.

I have Firefox set to:

Allow sites to set cookies and keep cookies until I close Firefox.

You don't have a firewall or other application that block cookies as well do you?

[Ed McKie]

Procat- I have left the builtin firewall in XP in place and just have a virus checker. A bit reluctant to disable the firewall though.

Ed

[BeeE586]

Please excuse my ignorance but I am always willing to learn something new ! What is FIREFOX ??

Eileen

[BeeE586]

I have looked at the site and will think about it, although having read about the difficulties some people have had I may just stick with what I know. I don't use EXPLORER - just AOL and Google.

Eileen

[Ed McKie]

Eileen

There are not a lot of problems with Firefox- Ancestry is the first site I have ever had problems with, and believe me I browse for hours.

Cheers..Ed

[Ed McKie]

@ Ed. I don't have XP, but all my friends who do have disabled the Windows Firewall and use alternatives such as Zone Alarm or Sygate instead. Personally I'd be surprised if the Windows firewall was the problem, but I don't claim to be an expert, and on the basis of process of elimination I'd think it's worth a try - I don't know one single person who actually thinks the XP Firewall is any good in any case![/QUOTE]
I agree, I have not bothered with other firewalls in the past but will give this a go. As I said reluctant to mess with firewalls now we have broadband. But you may be right about the firewall on XP, as I got a trojan a few days ago...say no more.

Cheers..Ed

[tony vines]

Eileen

I too use Firefox and have no problems with Ancestry or any other sites these days. What nobody has mentioned is that it is comparatively unaffected by twerps who get their kicks out of attacking Microsoft products (viruses, worms etc.) Internet Explorer is of course one such and the frequency with which Microsoft have to keep releasing major patches to keep the idiots at bay (usually for very short periods) shows how vulnerable MS software can be.

I have no axe to grind about MS software - I use it all the time - but Firefox is better designed and uses less of your PC resources than IE. You can keep both on your PC if you're worried about problems. There may still be a few sites out there that are not written with Firefox in mind and if you come across them you can simply use IE.

One very nice feature in Firefox is something called Tabs. This enables you to open multiple web sites without closing down the one you were using before. You then simply toggle between the sites. Once you've opened B-G Forums, FreeBMD, Ancestry.com and a host of others to suit your interests or tastes you'll never want to go back to a world without tabs.

By the way it is free and open source programming so my plug is without any embarrassment.

regards

Tony

[Procat]

Procat- I have left the builtin firewall in XP in place and just have a virus checker. A bit reluctant to disable the firewall though.

Ed

Hi Ed,

I wasn't suggesting that you disable the firewall rather that you should check that no other program (including the firewall) is set to block cookies.

For example, if you use Lavasoft Ad Watch this can be set to block cookies etc.

[Procat]

Hi again Ed,

Is it only Firefox that doesn't work with Ancestry?

Have you tried getting on with Internet Explorer?

I think it is going to be a process of elimination.

Obviously if Internet Explorer has the same issue you know it is a third party program causing the problem.

If Explorer works you could try turning off each one of your other protection devices one at a time and trying to get on the site again with Firefox.

There is something in the back of my mind about having to go into Start/Control Panel/Network & Internet Connections/Internet Options/Privacy and moving the Cookie slider to accept all cookies at one stage even though I was using Firefox.

I don't use the Windows Firewall by the way so if that is causing the conflict I may be on the wrong path all together.

[Ed McKie]

Doug

Problem now resolved.

I just kept repeating the process in Firefox of clearing all the cookies and then resetting to allow and then putting in Ancestry as an allowed cookie. After I had done this three times it worked. Did not change anything else as the normal XP security settings were already set to allow cookies.

Dont know what happened in the end. I am sure that I did not do anything different on the third attempt than on the previous two.

Yes I had used IE for Ancestry on the basis that I could not use Firefox....

But it was bugging me that I had to use IE for this and nothing else.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.
I know where to come in future. :-)

Cheers..Ed

[Procat]

Doug

Problem now resolved.

I just kept repeating the process in Firefox of clearing all the cookies and then resetting to allow and then putting in Ancestry as an allowed cookie. After I had done this three times it worked. ......

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.
I know where to come in future. :-) Cheers..Ed

Ah, must have been the old computer gremlins. Bit like the ghosts in theatres they are.

Believe me Ed, my computer expertise is virtually non-existent. I work on the suck it and see principle - and sometimes the results are not pretty. :)

[christopher_n_lewis]

One very nice feature in Firefox is something called Tabs. This enables you to open multiple web sites without closing down the one you were using before. You then simply toggle between the sites. Once you've opened B-G Forums, FreeBMD, Ancestry and a host of others to suit your interests or tastes you'll never want to go back to a world without tabs.
I've seen this paraded as an advantage of Firefox, and wonder if I am missing something. In Internet Explorer, if you hold down the <shift> key when you click on a link, a new window opens with the target page. If you do <shift>-N, a second window opens with the current page displayed. I regularly have FreeBMD, Ancestry, 1837.com etc. open at the same time. The Taskbar gets a bit crowded, so I usually have it on a second line below the Quick Launch bar.

I'm not defending Microsoft, and agree with the comments about Firefox being quicker and safer, but for those who stick with IE, there are these useful options.

Christopher