connection failure on zotero.org site

tauseekhan

Hi all
I am unable to downlaod zotero coz firefox giving me error of connection failure on zotero.org site...Any other person experiencing this?
Thanks

zuphilip

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/addon_could_not_be_downloaded

dstillman

(Posting to this thread out of many because it has the clearest title.)

We've just made a change on our end, and you should now be able to download the main Zotero extension and the word processor plugins even with Avast Web Shield or other questionable security software enabled. You won't receive any updates for a number of months unless you fix your connection, though.

Technical explanation: The details of the problem are explained on the page linked above — it's not an issue with the Zotero site — but there's a workaround involving verification hashes that we've now implemented. In my view Mozilla's policy here is pointless to begin with (since if you can install a root cert on someone's system you can do whatever else you want anyway), and the fact that there's a workaround makes it outright broken, but the whole system will be replaced in a number of months when Mozilla starts requiring signed add-ons (though that's a whole other issue).

There's technically a way we could make updates work too for people affected by this, but I find it too fragile — a simple mistake could leave people on old versions forever. So for now, if you're running Avast or similar, you should disable the feature that's causing this, set the update pref explained on the linked page, or install updates manually when they come out. We'll also try to show a banner when people make it to zotero.org with an old version of the Firefox extension installed. Later this year when Mozilla introduces the new add-on signing system, updates should begin working again automatically even on intercepted connections.

dstillman

I've created a page about automatic updates over intercepted connections:

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/updates_not_detected

If you were previously affected by the "The add-on could not be downloaded because of a connection failure on www.zotero.org." error, this will still apply to you for the time being.