Firefox to kill all NPAPI Plugins: March 7th 2017

nayr

nayr

IPCT Contributor
Jul 16, 2014
9,229
5,328
Denver, CO
Say goodbye to your IP Camera's external plugin in Firefox, Chrome killed NPAPI Plugins a while ago and Firefox has been planning to follow since October 2015.

Starting with March 7, when Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 52, all plugins built on the old NPAPI technology will stop working in Firefox, except for Flash, which Mozilla plans to support for a few more versions.

NPAPI stands for Netscape Plugins API and is an ancient plugins infrastructure inherited from the old Netscape browser on which Mozilla built Firefox.
Click to expand...

Mozilla to Drop Support for All NPAPI Plugins in Firefox 52, Except Flash
 
  • Like
Reactions: hmjgriffon, mat200 and looney2ns
I take this to mean plugin.exe won't work in the near future.

nayr said:
Say goodbye to your IP Camera's external plugin in Firefox,
Click to expand...

And this would apply to the NVR also (not just cameras)
Besides not using the new version of Firefox, what other options exist?

Fastb
 
Correct, NVR's will cease to display video via plugins also..

IE (not edge) and Safari are the only 2 browsers still standing with NPAPI Plugin support.. RTSP is the long standing standard for video surveillance, however HTML5 has no support for this protocol and decent realtime video streaming has not achieved any level of agreement between the browsers or standards bodies.. thanks largely to patent encumbered video technologies.

Basically pluginless Video Surveillance in the Browser is still along ways away.. dont hold your breath for this functionality to appear soon.

Us in the IT world been dealing with this crap for a long time; we keep isolated VM's or machines around with antique web browsers to maintain the capabilities to interface with existing software thats never going to see a update to support modern browsers.. get used to it, this is what happens all the time w/embedded hardware, and its getting worse now that they are putting this shit into our cars and stuff, imagine how useful your CarPlay enabled car will be in 10 years when nothing talks to it anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hmjgriffon, lunokhod and Fastb
I believe Waterfox, a browser based on old Firefox code still supports NPAPI plugins, along with the old format firefox extensions.

Can't say I've tried it though:- Waterfox - Wikipedia
 
  • Like
Reactions: nayr
By design, Waterfox is a 64 bit browser. I made a couple of attempts to install NPAPI plugins and was not successful. Possibly because the plugins are 32 bit and the browser is 64 bit? Maybe I am missing something.
 
Kitsap said:
By design, Waterfox is a 64 bit browser. I made a couple of attempts to install NPAPI plugins and was not successful. Possibly because the plugins are 32 bit and the browser is 64 bit? Maybe I am missing something.
Click to expand...

Mel! said:
I believe Waterfox, a browser based on old Firefox code still supports NPAPI plugins, along with the old format firefox extensions.

Can't say I've tried it though:- Waterfox - Wikipedia
Click to expand...
Waterfox only supports 64bit plugins so it isn't that useful.

Pale Moon (32bit version) supports 32 bit NAPI plugins, but it is a relatively slow browser. You probably wouldn't want to use it for much else.
The Pale Moon Project homepage
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Mel!
I have a similar issue with QuickTime and my American Dynamics fisheye...its web GUI uses QuickTime plug-in and there are no plans for further revision...and apparently browsers no longer support that...including Apple!...Didnt they start Quicktime?
So I had to jump throuh hoops to move some files around in my iMac to install and force the last version to work on Safari...But I cant use it on Chrome or on My Windows machine. So if I ever get rid of the iMac the camera will be unconfigurable.
 
nbstl68 said:
I have a similar issue with QuickTime and my American Dynamics fisheye...its web GUI uses QuickTime plug-in and there are no plans for further revision...and apparently browsers no longer support that...including Apple!...Didnt they start Quicktime?
So I had to jump throuh hoops to move some files around in my iMac to install and force the last version to work on Safari...But I cant use it on Chrome or on My Windows machine. So if I ever get rid of the iMac the camera will be unconfigurable.
Click to expand...
Safari and quicktime used to exist on windows too. Quicktime usage was quite low before development stopped, then there was a major security vulnerability and iirc they pushed an update to remove or disable it.
 
Last edited:
Safari for windows been dead for a while; you might find an old copy of it somewhere but its not been maintained and wont be found on apple's site.. might still work though w/NPAPI Plugins, dunno

You can delay the inevitable w/Firefox by changing your release channel to the Extended Support Release: Plugin Support in Firefox 52, but that release will be EOL'd in 12months.
 
Last edited:
nayr said:
Us in the IT world been dealing with this crap for a long time; we keep isolated VM's or machines around with antique web browsers to maintain the capabilities to interface with existing software thats never going to see a update to support modern browsers.. get used to it, this is what happens all the time w/embedded hardware, and its getting worse now that they are putting this shit into our cars and stuff, imagine how useful your CarPlay enabled car will be in 10 years when nothing talks to it anymore.
Click to expand...

I've been keeping an old Windows 98 laptop going so I can program some old legacy Motorola two-way radio/telemetry equipment that doesn't look like it's getting updated any time soon.
 
nayr said:
Safari for windows been dead for a while; you might find an old copy of it somewhere but its not been maintained and wont be found on apple's site.. might still work though w/NPAPI Plugins, dunno

You can delay the inevitable w/Firefox by changing your release channel to the Extended Support Release: Plugin Support in Firefox 52, but that release will be EOL'd in 12months.
Click to expand...

For a newbie, aside from extended support release with Firefox, what would be the best way to access camera firmware going forward? I haven't purchased my cameras as of yet, are some better than others as far as accessing the firmware?
 
Looks like some cameras may require technicians (us) to keep dedicated legacy computer equipment around for service. Oh well. It happens. Tons of places have ancient equipment running that nobody completly knows how it works or where to get parts. The guys that designed it retired and the manufacturer went under. I read not that long ago that there was an automated industrial building (HVAC plus some other stuff I think) running on an ancient Commodore Amiga. Try maintaining a system that still runs on floppy disks. I've had good disks die after a few years in a drawer.

Hopefully we'll get a good widely supported video solution that'll run in modern browsers though.
 
I think its going to involve WebRTC, which IIRC only FF supports currently.. My Company been trying to do real time video chats w/out the need for plugins; We have a working Demo.. but it dont work in all browsers yet..

HTML5 Dropped the ball entirely on realtime video; they were too focused on replacing flash video it seems nobody was paying attention.
 
just some dude said:
I'll have to retry IE, I thought it was not working also.
Click to expand...
I've been sidelined the last few weeks post hip surgery and just getting to fiddle with my couple of cameras(both Dahua 5321-z) today from my Win 10 computer.
So when trying to view the cameras via the web gui Ip directly, it appears I can no longer see the camera's video in any browser I have, (Win 10 box so that is IE11, Edge and Chrome).
They all show black screen with a message to download NACL plugin, (which I already have downloaded and installed?).
But the for the IE and Edge browser it still does nothing...For Chrome it closes and force opens the NACL plugin in up in another window?

Is this part of the issue of this thread or is this something different going on?
Is there no way for me to see my camera video feed in its own GUI any longer?!
Apologies if this is a different issue for a different thread but did not find much when searching for NACL.
 
nbstl68 said:
Is this part of the issue of this thread or is this something different going on?
Is there no way for me to see my camera video feed in its own GUI any longer?!
Apologies if this is a different issue for a different thread but did not find much when searching for NACL.
Click to expand...

Running IE should work (but if the plugin is 32 bits and your IE 64 bits it or IE32 and installed plugin 64 it will not work but I am not even sure that a 64bits IE version exists) and to be sure also try to get older FireFox version (deactivate auto-update in settings) and try again, this is a first approach but other solutions may exist of course.
 
Uninstall Firefox 52.00 , install firefox 51.01, stop updating Firefox, and everything is okay.
 
as long as you stop using firefox for all other internet use; otherwise your a moron for disabling browser updates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom