I have firefox up with a number of tabs.
I shut wifi off on my Purism laptop by shutting off power to the radio.
I start up a new tab by clicking on '+'.
I ask to look at file:///home/hendrik by typing in the url bar.
Nothing happens. It's frozen.
I try file:///
Nothing happens either.
I turn wifi on and reconnect to the access point.
Now both of these urls work.

So I ask: Why should firefox need to access the net to look at the
hard drive in the laptop.

Using Devuan Ascii and the firefox it provides.

-- hendrik