Hi,

I use FireFox V102 (I think).

Recently, I was looking for information on something via
a duckduckgo search engine.

One site in the list (sorry, I did not write down the site address), when
I clicked on it took me to a page without any issues. On that page
was a list of links to other pages, which may include other sites?

I clicked on one of those links. It took me to a page or site
for about a second, then I was switched to another page or site!

In that second or two, I saw something that could be what I was looking
for, but I was switched to another page.

Is there a way to "freeze" the page that lasted a second or two?

Thank You in advance, John

<jaugustine@verizon.net> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I use FireFox V102 (I think).
>
> Recently, I was looking for information on something via
> a duckduckgo search engine.
>
> One site in the list (sorry, I did not write down the site address), when
> I clicked on it took me to a page without any issues. On that page
> was a list of links to other pages, which may include other sites?
>
> I clicked on one of those links. It took me to a page or site
> for about a second, then I was switched to another page or site!
>
> In that second or two, I saw something that could be what I was looking
> for, but I was switched to another page.
>
> Is there a way to "freeze" the page that lasted a second or two?
>
> Thank You in advance, John

Interstitial pages are delivered via meta-refresh (a refresh attribute
in a meta tag), or using script.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstitial_webpage

With meta-refresh, the timeout can be zero, or higher, in how long to
display the interstitial page in seconds. Depends on whether the web
author wants you to see the interstital page, or not. Meta-refresh is a
request, not forced, by the web page asking the client to load another
web page either for redirection or to control from where you can come
from to get to another web page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh

To disable auto-refresh, see:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/disable-web-page-auto-refresh-for-various-browsers/

Firefox used to have an exposed user-configurable setting (in the config
screens) for "Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page".
That disappeared in FF v56. Now you have to use the about:config editor
to change the blockautorefresh settings. The problem with blocking
auto-refresh is there are sites that auto-refresh their own pages, like
news sites that update what are the current articles they want to
present. Auto-refresh isn't just about moving to a different web page.
It's also used to refresh the current web page. Firefox also doesn't
tell you to where the redirection points, so you're blind on allowing
the redirection, or you have to dig into the page's code to find the
redirection to see where it points.

However, you'll be stuck on the interstitial page, and have to figure
out for yourself to where the meta-refresh tag points, and also know if
arguments are to be added to the URL for the redirection.

Some web browsers will show you to where the meta-refresh points to let
you determine if you want to continue to there. Mozilla has never
deemed it necessary to show you to where meta-refresh points. Very
rude, and treats all users as boobs. At one time, I used an add-on
called Redirect Control. It would halt on the interstitial page, or
before redirection, and show me to where the code intended to redirect
me. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirect-control/
was where I found it, but it is no longer available. There are redirect
blockers and redirect skippers, but those try to skip the interstitial
page(s) to jump directly to the target page. However, that can fail
since redirections may be trying to point to something important, like
when Hotmail used to interrupt an webmail login to warn something
untoward happened on your account. Interstitial pages can add arguments
to the redirection URL (arguments to the prior page are not carried
forward) that are necessary to load the target page. So, blocking and
skipping interstitial pages has problems. I'd prefer an add-on, like
was available with Redirect Control, that blocked the refresh (redirect
to another or same page), and told me to where the redirection pointed.
There may be alternative add-ons to do the same thing, but I stopped
bothering trying to interrupt redirects awhile ago.

With Google's Safebrowsing feature enabled in Firefox, Google checks if
the redirection points to a malicious web page, and will inject an
interstitial page to warn you about the suspicious redirection. The
Safebrowsing code within Firefox is injecting the interstitial page
which supercedes a met-refresh redirection in a web doc.

With Javascript, it can load a new web doc using the same window as for
the current web doc. Scripts can have their own timers or conditionals
to decide when to perform a refresh (which could be on the current web
doc, or point to a different one).

With meta-refresh, you could stop on the interstitchal page, but you'd
have to look at the HTML code to see to where the redirection points.
With Javascript, you'd have to look at the script code to see to where
the redirection points. You would have to disable Javascript to see the
code, but then the first web doc won't run its scripts which means it
won't redirect to the next web doc.

<jaugustine@verizon.net> wrote

| In that second or two, I saw something that could be what I was
looking
| for, but I was switched to another page.
| | Is there a way to "freeze" the page that lasted a second or two?
|

accessibility.blockautorefresh = true

Another possibility is to click the X button, if you can do it fast
enough.
If that's not showing while the page loads then try the customize option
to make it show.

On 10/16/2022 6:11 PM, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I use FireFox V102 (I think).
>
> Recently, I was looking for information on something via
> a duckduckgo search engine.
>
> One site in the list (sorry, I did not write down the site address), when
> I clicked on it took me to a page without any issues. On that page
> was a list of links to other pages, which may include other sites?
>
> I clicked on one of those links. It took me to a page or site
> for about a second, then I was switched to another page or site!
>
> In that second or two, I saw something that could be what I was looking
> for, but I was switched to another page.
>
> Is there a way to "freeze" the page that lasted a second or two?
>
> Thank You in advance, John
>

You can record your screen:

# no sound, efficient storage. q:v 1 means "highest quality, less compression"

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -f gdigrab -i desktop -q:v 1 -vcodec h264 out.mp4

# When you have a high speed scratch disk, such as a RAMDisk for storage
# Windows 7 will do 60 frames per second, especially if Aero is turned off.
# Win8/10/11 are more likely 30 frames per second or less. Hollywood limiter.
# Not all video planes are captured -- can't capture a 3D game this way.
# The output in this case, is uncompress BMP files (wasteful).

ffmpeg -framerate 60 -f gdigrab -i desktop -f image2 L:\TEMP\a%05d.bmp

# You can record a portion of the screen, plus record audio with it.
# Part of the fun, is figuring out the text string for audio=
# Some audio chips, the name is too long, and the string abruptly ends mid-word.

ffmpeg -offset_x 0 -offset_y 480 -video_size 720x480 -framerate 60
-f gdigrab -i desktop -f dshow -sample_rate 44100 -i audio="SoundMAX HD Audio"
-vcodec mjpeg -acodec pcm_s16le out.avi

# This command is used to list the audio chip, for usage in the previous command.
# Modern computers will return more than one.

ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy

Windows builds of FFMPEG, are not done by the authors of the code.
Individuals do the builds. In this example, I was grabbing a nightly,
from the top of the list.

https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/

https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/packages/ffmpeg-2022-03-07-git-e645a1ddb9-full_build.7z

Name: ffmpeg-2022-03-07-git-e645a1ddb9-full_build.7z
Size: 44,315,699 bytes (42 MiB)
SHA256: 4E3BDF5E4FB18A18F05805867B37D40CCCAD67F7CF8A7A8C2D4D3B24A5B74BC4
SHA1: 676A3D07F34580F444BF26E784089C3B05CC8810

Decompressing the ZIP, you'd find one of these.

Name: ffmpeg.exe
Size: 121,132,032 bytes (115 MiB)
SHA1: C1D14C672D9FAFC16BD633A14C56502792D24D13

You can unpack into C:\ffmpeg and use it as (Command Prompt)

cd /d c:\ffmpeg\bin

ffmpeg ...

as the program is portable and has no installer/uninstaller.
Simply delete your C:\ffmpeg if you don't want to keep it.
It does not install any drivers.

Paul

jaugustine@verizon.net wrote on 17/10/22 9:11 am:
> Hi,
>
> I use FireFox V102 (I think).
>
> Recently, I was looking for information on something via
> a duckduckgo search engine.
>
> One site in the list (sorry, I did not write down the site address), when
> I clicked on it took me to a page without any issues. On that page
> was a list of links to other pages, which may include other sites?
>
> I clicked on one of those links. It took me to a page or site
> for about a second, then I was switched to another page or site!
>
> In that second or two, I saw something that could be what I was looking
> for, but I was switched to another page.
>
> Is there a way to "freeze" the page that lasted a second or two?
>
> Thank You in advance, John
>
John, it might be worthwhile asking your question in a Firefox newsgroup
like alt.comp.software.firefox.
--
Daniel

<SNIP>
>
>To disable auto-refresh, see:
>
>https://www.maketecheasier.com/disable-web-page-auto-refresh-for-various-browsers/
>
Hi Vanguard,

The above link was the solution to my quest.

It had the procedure (I forgot) that I had used years ago on earlier
version of FireFox. I will keep the procedure for FireFox in my notebook.

It turned out, the page I thought might have the info I was looking for,
did not have the info (not related to computers and related).

BTW: Afterwards, I restored the default "false" within the configuration
list for "blocking redirect".

Thanks again, John

>Firefox used to have an exposed user-configurable setting (in the config
>screens) for "Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page".
>That disappeared in FF v56. Now you have to use the about:config editor
>to change the blockautorefresh settings. The problem with blocking
>auto-refresh is there are sites that auto-refresh their own pages, like
>news sites that update what are the current articles they want to
>present. Auto-refresh isn't just about moving to a different web page.
>It's also used to refresh the current web page. Firefox also doesn't
>tell you to where the redirection points, so you're blind on allowing
>the redirection, or you have to dig into the page's code to find the
>redirection to see where it points.
>
>However, you'll be stuck on the interstitial page, and have to figure
>out for yourself to where the meta-refresh tag points, and also know if
>arguments are to be added to the URL for the redirection.
>
>Some web browsers will show you to where the meta-refresh points to let
>you determine if you want to continue to there. Mozilla has never
>deemed it necessary to show you to where meta-refresh points. Very
>rude, and treats all users as boobs. At one time, I used an add-on
>called Redirect Control. It would halt on the interstitial page, or
>before redirection, and show me to where the code intended to redirect
>me. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirect-control/
>was where I found it, but it is no longer available. There are redirect
>blockers and redirect skippers, but those try to skip the interstitial
>page(s) to jump directly to the target page. However, that can fail
>since redirections may be trying to point to something important, like
>when Hotmail used to interrupt an webmail login to warn something
>untoward happened on your account. Interstitial pages can add arguments
>to the redirection URL (arguments to the prior page are not carried
>forward) that are necessary to load the target page. So, blocking and
>skipping interstitial pages has problems. I'd prefer an add-on, like
>was available with Redirect Control, that blocked the refresh (redirect
>to another or same page), and told me to where the redirection pointed.
>There may be alternative add-ons to do the same thing, but I stopped
>bothering trying to interrupt redirects awhile ago.
>
>With Google's Safebrowsing feature enabled in Firefox, Google checks if
>the redirection points to a malicious web page, and will inject an
>interstitial page to warn you about the suspicious redirection. The
>Safebrowsing code within Firefox is injecting the interstitial page
>which supercedes a met-refresh redirection in a web doc.
>
>With Javascript, it can load a new web doc using the same window as for
>the current web doc. Scripts can have their own timers or conditionals
>to decide when to perform a refresh (which could be on the current web
>doc, or point to a different one).
>
>With meta-refresh, you could stop on the interstitchal page, but you'd
>have to look at the HTML code to see to where the redirection points.
>With Javascript, you'd have to look at the script code to see to where
>the redirection points. You would have to disable Javascript to see the
>code, but then the first web doc won't run its scripts which means it
>won't redirect to the next web doc.