Your Firefox has a lot of plugins installed, including some very out of date and no longer supported plugins. That said, this issue is most commonly caused by security software and/or proxy settings.

You might try uninstalling any security software and the re-installing Firefox to see if anything improves.

Also, check "No Proxy" under Tools > Options > Advanced > Network : Connection > Settings

Let me know if either of these fixes the issue.

have checked the NO PROXY selection and it seems I have a noticeable improvement. Will have to work on my plug ins. As you may have guessed I'm new to Firefox have now installed to replace the no longer supported IE8 and just trying to extend the computer life for another year. I keep this oldie strictly for internet banking and most of these sites now require newer version to work.

On another note could you tell me why Firefox is simply not complying on any request to access Google software, either with a simple search or access to my Gmail account? I can hear the hard drive going for some time then I get the error page "Cannot display the page" or attempt timed out

That is either due to an out of date plugin causing problems or something in your cache which needs cleared. I would run a cleaning tool like ccleaner, then uninstall any old software that you don't need, then update whatever software is left (especially flash player).

You should have a faster/cleaner browsing experience after doing those things.

There are other things that need attention.

Your System Details list shows a very old Shockwave Flash 10.0 r45 version that you should remove (uninstall) and replace with the current Flash player version.

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Issues_related_to_plugins#Identifying_installed_plugins

You can find the latest Flash player versions for Firefox on this page:

• http://www.adobe.com/special/products/flashplayer/fp_distribution3.html