Re: off-topic (maybe) Firefox: stop trying HTTPS without asking me

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Tim:
>> Just thought I'd try asking here, because I'm not having much luck with
>> Google...
>> 
>> Many times, way too many damn times, if I try to access some address
>> with Firefox it will go into HTTPS mode when I don't want it to.


Will McDonald:
> Untested but browser.fixup.fallback-to-https in about:config looks
> like a likely candidate.
> 
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30532471/firefox-redirects-to-https
> might be useful too.


That seems to be the magic solution.  For what it's worth, for the sake
of my sanity, and maybe it'll help others, I've made these changes:


browser.fixup.fallback-to-https = false

This should stop any time I want to go to http://192.168.1.254 changing
without my authority to https://192.168.1.254.  As far as I'm concerned
that should never have happened, and automatically choosing that
protocol would only be *barely* tolerable if I'd simply typed in
192.168.1.254 without any protocol prefix.



dom.security.https_first = false
dom.security.https_first_pbm = false

These would appear to be presuming to use a HTTPS protocol if I hadn't
typed in any protocol prefixing the address (like if I'd simply typed
in 192.168.1.254).  The first one for general windows (and it was
already false, by default), the second one for private browsing windows
(and it was true, by default).



network.stricttransportsecurity.preloadlist = false

This was suggested (by my earlier google searches) as the likely
answer, but didn't help with this problem.  It may, however, help with
other addresses that someone else has made assumptions about ought to
be HTTPS instead of HTTP (disabling those presumptions).



keyword.enabled = false

Another config choice was to add the separate search bar next to the
address bar, and stop the address bar from doing internet searches.  So
that when you type in something like router (and hit enter) it doesn't
do a google search for routers, but only tries to connect to something
with router as the hostname.  This has been another nuisance that I've,
now, stopped.  If what I type doesn't connect, *I* can decide on the
next course of action.

NB:  This doesn't stop the address bar from offering previous addresses
that you've visited as suggestions, or finding things you've bookmarked
(appearing in a list popping up below the the addressbar), when you
start to type them.  *Local* searching still works, so to speak.

It may also help with mDNS local hostnames (being just a local search
not a google search), but I don't use mDNS to be able to try that out.



browser.urlbar.trimURLs = false

This stops the address bar from hiding the http:// or https:// protocol
prefixes before the address.  Eliminating guessing games about what
it's doing.  I consider that as dumb as Windows hiding filename
suffixes (where you can't tell hackme.jpg apart from hackme.exe).



I also ensure DNS over HTTPS is disabled, because I want *my* DNS
server to be the thing that provides answers.  Only my DNS server can
answer LAN queries.  An external server is something that I cannot
control to blackhole nuisances, and it might censor queries.  My ISP's
DNS server was always terrible (overloaded, slow, and often wrong).

Other search results suggested finding problematic addresses and
removing them from the history, to stop Firefox doing the same thing as
it tried last time.  I haven't followed up on doing this, because it
doesn't seem to have been necessary.

Of course it's up to *me* to ensure that when I do something like log
onto a banking site I'm using a HTTPS address (this is something where
the now often ignored bookmarking browser feature is a really good
thing - some people google search *everything*).  And the sanely
written service provider sites will make sure that visiting them via
HTTP will give you a different landing page that moves you into the
HTTPS site before giving you any logon boxes to type into.

If only I could configure mobile device browsers similarly!  One on my
my phone has no address bar if the browser has been opened up by a link
you've clicked elsewhere.  You just have the site's domain name at the
top, and no navigational bar to see where you are, or hand type
something into it.  Dumbing things down to the point that they're
painful.

-- 
 
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