SillyDog701

[SassyDevil]

When I click on certain external links, such as a Barnes & Noble message with a clickable coupon in email, it goes to the link destination, but also, a notice pops up that says, "Server Busy," and asks me if I want to "Switch To..." or "Retry," and regardless of what I click, a blank Explorer window pops up. (Firefox is my default browser, and I don't really use Explorer at all.) After browsing on mozilla.org's help info and forums, I thought this might have to do with an extension or plugin, but I tried disabling them all (with the intent of turning on one at a time until the error popped up again, to discern the offending add-on), but the error persisted, even with all of them off. Nevertheless, I'm including a list of the extensions and plugins I use below. I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

Extensions:

Adblock Plus
BetterSearch
BitDefender Antiphishing Toolbar
BugMeNot
ColorfulTabs
Download Statusbar
DownloadHelper
InFormEnter
Java Quick Starter
Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant
NoScript
SubTile

Plugins:

Adobe Acrobat
DivX Player Netscape Plugin
DivX Web Player
iTunes Application Detector
Java Deployment Toolkit
Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U13
Java(TM) Platform SE 5 U15
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft DRM
Mozilla Default Plug-in
QuickTime Plug-in
RealJukebox NS Plugin
RealNetworks Phaspsody Player Engine
RealPlayer Version Plugin
RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In
Shockwave Flash
Shockwave for Director
Windows Genuine Advantage
Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
Windows Presentation Foundation

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

[Fulvio]

If you mean Internet Explorer, it could mean that the site is coded, preferentially, for IE.
Do you have any link which you could share?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

[Antony]

When I click on certain external links, such as a Barnes & Noble message with a clickable coupon in email, it goes to the link destination, but also, a notice pops up that says, "Server Busy," and asks me if I want to "Switch To..." or "Retry," and regardless of what I click, a blank Explorer window pops up. (Firefox is my default browser, and I don't really use Explorer at all.)

So the server busy is on the pop-up window?
Then, it could be the web server serving that pop-up window was busy. Or it could be a 3rd party advertising trying to trick you to click on anything (and possibly install something on your computer).

Are you able to take a screenshot of that said "Server Busy" window?
(Once captured the screenshot and saved it to a jpeg file, you can upload it to places like ImageShack.)

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

[SassyDevil]

I tried to do a screen capture of the "Server Busy" pop-up, but the pop-up comes and goes too fast. Then, the blank Internet Explorer window pops up. It's only for certain links, and acts the same way anytime those links are clicked. One example is the following link, for a Barnes & Noble coupon (although the coupon is no longer available, it still results in the same problem for me):

http://email.bn.com/cgi-bin6/DM/y/nchV0 ... aq0BWBl0EM

And here's a second link, from Payless Shoe Source, that gives me the same result:

href="https://updates.payless.com/servlet/cc6?tLkkQSCYQTVOLjLmkHqiHPtLkkxPHohhQJhuVaVSA

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

[Fulvio]

This may happen when you login. As for the first link, it tells me that the coupon is no longer available. The second one is not a proper link, with the href= in front. It is a "https" i.e. a secure site, meaning that you login to get into. When I copy and try to open the page, the https changes to http, like this.
I don't get, in both cases nothing but the page in Firefox. No IE popup, or whatever it is.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

[Fulvio]

This may happen when you login. As for the first link, it tells me that the coupon is no longer available. The second one is not a proper link, with the href= in front. It is a "https" i.e. a secure site, meaning that you login to get into. When I copy and try to open the page, the https changes to http, like this.
I don't get, in both cases nothing but the page in Firefox. No IE popup, or whatever it is.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

[SassyDevil]

No, it doesn't have to do with logging in. It's only certain sites, logged in or not, and I still don't know what's causing it. But thanks for trying.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

[Fulvio]

FYI, Plugins should not matter. As for add-ons, they could interfere. Did you try to start Firefox in its safe mode? It has the same effect as disabling the add-ons, except that it is simpler and more thorough.
Since the same version as yours gives me issue with the Payless site, I can't make anything out of it. Several people reported some minor issues with v.3.5.3, but none was explained.
Also, Firefox is my default, but it is v.3.0.14. I don't know if it would matter.
I will, eventually, make 3.5x my default, but since I had installed it in a non-standard location, ( and , I installed it independently of 3.0x, i.e. not by update, and use a separate profile, of course), I prefer not to make it default. Who knows, it is possible that all sort of disasters will follow, after doing that, but there is an outside chance that the problem is having it default.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9.1

[SassyDevil]

I'll try that, when it's a little more convenient, and report back. Thank you.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)