Provide intuitive steps when Firefox can't connect

Status

Team

Open issues/risks

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Stage 1: Definition

1. Feature overview

We should help people when Firefox can't connect to a website or the internet. Currently we display an error message, 3 troubleshooting tips and a "Try Again" button. Very often, especially in the case where Firefox can't connect to the internet, people are very upset that our help system is only accessible via the internet. In fact, we're adding messaging around this to the Mozilla voicemail because people often try to call us for help in this case.

After Firefox releases, often, >50% of questions relate to firewalls

What this feature would do:

• When unable to load a page, Firefox can check to see if it can still access the internet and that this isn't just a case of mistyped URL.
• If Firefox can't connect to the internet it will display a "Network Down" error page that contains a button to open a cached SUMO page with detailed steps for resolving the issue (Firefox would have to cache the SUMO page ahead of time and at regular intervals).
• The Network Down error page can serve different SUMO pages depending on conditions that it can detect. For example, if this is Windows and it's the first boot since upgrading, a SUMO article about firewalls blocking Firefox can be shown.

2. Users & use cases

• Internet Security software blocking Firefox
• Proxy errors
• DNS errors
• Problems with IPv6
• The computer is connected to a wi-fi access point that doesn't have an active internet connection
• The computer does not have an active internet connection

3. Dependencies

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4. Requirements

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Non-goals

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Stage 2: Design

5. Functional specification

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6. User experience design

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Stage 3: Planning

7. Implementation plan

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8. Reviews

Security review

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Privacy review

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Localization review

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Accessibility

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Quality Assurance review

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Operations review

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Stage 4: Development

9. Implementation

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Stage 5: Release

10. Landing criteria

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Feature details

Team status notes