CentOS - Mar 2018 - Web site not responding with Firefox 52.6.0 (64-bit)

I don't know if this is a CentOS7/Firefox problem or one with the distant
web site slashdot.org. I can connect to it just fine with the latest
Firefox on my Windows 10 desktop PC, but not with Firefox 52.6.0 on this
CentOS 7.4 laptop. This has been an on-going problem for several weeks.

Google search results are sketchy. slashdot.org may have been a DDOS
target today, but as I write this network monitors say it's up and
running. RC4 deprecation may be a factor, but I doubt it. I can traceroute
to the site just fine, and its URL resolves with no trouble.

The error message I'm getting is "The connection has timed out"

The URL I've used forever is:
https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=journal&source=autorefresh&nobeta=1

I'm stumped. Does this sound familiar to anyone in CentOS land?

--Doc Savage
  Fairview Heights, IL

On Sat, Mar 03, 2018 at 06:55:04PM -0600, dsavage at peaknet.net
wrote:
> I don't know if this is a CentOS7/Firefox problem or one with the
distant
> web site slashdot.org. I can connect to it just fine with the latest
> Firefox on my Windows 10 desktop PC, but not with Firefox 52.6.0 on this
> CentOS 7.4 laptop. This has been an on-going problem for several weeks.
I get to slashdot.org, but I get a page where the most recent posting
is from Thursday.


-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .----    Fred Smith   /              
( /__  ,__.   __   __ /  __   : /     
 /    /  /   /__) /  /  /__) .+'           Home: fredex at
fcshome.stoneham.ma.us
/    /  (__ (___ (__(_ (___ / :__                                 781-438-5471 
-------------------------------- Jude 1:24,25 ---------------------------------

> Date: Saturday, March 03, 2018 20:54:56 -0500
> From: Fred Smith <fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us>
>
> On Sat, Mar 03, 2018 at 06:55:04PM -0600, dsavage at peaknet.net wrote:
>> I don't know if this is a CentOS7/Firefox problem or one with the
>> distant web site slashdot.org. I can connect to it just fine with
>> the latest Firefox on my Windows 10 desktop PC, but not with
>> Firefox 52.6.0 on this CentOS 7.4 laptop. This has been an
>> on-going problem for several weeks.
> 
> I get to slashdot.org, but I get a page where the most recent
> posting is from Thursday.
Most pages I try to go to return the following:

  503 - Service Offline
  Slashdot is presently in offline mode. Only the front page
  and story pages linked from the front page are available in
  this mode. Please try again later.

whether using Chrome or FF 52.6.0 or the current beta 59.0b14.