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[Rogue Drone]

the about:config mods and other speed tweaks are installed automatically with the Fasterfox extension at http://www.mozilla.com/extensions/

The prefetching feature of that extension may be a speed tweak for some, for me not, but that's because I have P2P apps using the idle bandwidth.

 

[Beowulf]

Thanks, Rogue. I got it. I just quit Firefox, and then started it again. It seems faster, but maybe it is just mental. Do I need to restart the comp, or just Firefox.

(Sorry, I am a troglodyte )

 

[Beowulf]

Definitely don't need to restart the computer. Damn this thing is fast as hell Thanks guys!

 

[Pioneer]

Hey Pioneer, I can't find
"network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

There are only two that say network.http... They are the 2 you already stated. I have a mac. Could this be the reason? Also, when you say restart firefox, do you mean restart the computer, or firefox only?

its there, its just next to a lot of things that look exactly like it.

and like you already said, just close down firefox, no need for the comp restart.

and yes you could just d/l fasterfox, but why install something when you can just switch a few settings around?

 

[Kris4153]

I love Firefox and have been using it for a long time. I am upset about the memory leak though w/ 1.5.x and higher. Whenever large resolution pictures are loaded your computers memory goes crazy and very low. Oh well I am still going to use FF.

Firefox is by far superior to IE:numbered:

 

[Rogue Drone]

For those of you who are running XP with less than ~320 megs of RAM, I would highly recommend getting a copy of the freeware app
Free RAM XP Pro.

http://www.yourwaresolutions.com/software.html#framxpro

I've tried many of the free and commercial RAM reclaiming apps, this one I believe to the best. You don't have to run it in the background to reclaim memory loss, you can make a RAM cut set to auto reclaim, a switch icon for the desktop and fire it off periodically when the OS gets sluggish.

I also highly recommend getting a copy of O & O Defrag, it's not free but it is, to defrag your hardrive a few times a week, it's easy and quick to do with this app set on Stealth to run in the background for just a few minuters and a copy of Registry Mechanic, again not free but we know about that, to repair and compact the registry. Compacting the registry can make a big performance difference.

Those of you who are still using IE should flush your cache pretty regularly, beyond maybe 10 megs of cache in IE slows down more than speeds page loading.

 

[Pioneer]

For those of you who are running XP with less than ~320 megs of RAM, I would highly recommend getting a copy of the freeware app
Free RAM XP Pro.

http://www.yourwaresolutions.com/software.html#framxpro

I've tried many of the free and commercial RAM reclaiming apps, this one I believe to the best. You don't have to run it in the background to reclaim memory loss, you can make a RAM cut set to auto reclaim, a switch icon for the desktop and fire it off periodically when the OS gets sluggish.

I also highly recommend getting a copy of O & O Defrag, it's not free but it is, to defrag your hardrive a few times a week, it's easy and quick to do with this app set on Stealth to run in the background for just a few minuters and a copy of Registry Mechanic, again not free but we know about that, to repair and compact the registry. Compacting the registry can make a big performance difference.

Those of you who are still using IE should flush your cache pretty regularly, beyond maybe 10 megs of cache in IE slows down more than speeds page loading.

i dont know man, i dont agree on much of that.

the program to "free" up RAM is completely bogus, the fact that youre running ANOTHER program would take up more RAM then it would free. ive read about them on CNet, ive even given a few a try, none work. spend 50 bucks and upgrade with a 256mb (or maybe even more these days) stick of ram.

windows comes with a perfectly fine defrag program designed by and for windows, no need to spend money on something else with a few more options. the windows one gets done what a defrag program needs to do.

few times a week? unless youre uninstalling and reinstalling massive amounts of programs, deleting and moving folders and misc. files, you dont need to defrag more then once a week.

.02

agree on the IE thing though

 

[jarhead]

Wow. Just switched and I am amazed at how fast it is. Thanks to pioneer too for his trick!

 

[Rogue Drone]

on Ram Pro,

If it was running in the background, as the other mem apps do, it would be a tradeoff between extra processor load and commit charge versus the ability to maintain free RAM, and that is a poor tradeoff. In this case, Ram Pro is off until you hit your ram cut icon for a total of less than 5 seconds to free ram when you option the app this way. Free ram without ongoing load. Freeing memory leaks can make a huge difference for those who are running a memory hungry OS like XP with <~320 megs of RAM.

People should just buy more RAM, this is like turbocharging a weak car engine, but it's a better option than just slogging along with too little avaliable memory.

Defrag,

If you use your PC intensively, as many do, you absolutley should defrag every 2 to 3 days to perk performance. Overall percentage of fragmentation is a poor measure of the true effect on read/write times, your system files and most used are getting chopped up all the time, that may only be 1% of the total, but it's a vastly larger percentage of the files you need most to run optimally.

Defrag Option one is the MS App, 45 or more minutes with their defragger that dominates everything else running and option two is O & O, 5 to 7 minutes in the background with minimal load on the system, done. If all I had to use was the MS App, I would'nt bother defragging every two days either, but there are better choices avaliable, the MS/Seagate Defragger is probably the slowest and one of the most system intensive choices on the market, it's an IE quality POS.

The best defraggers are the ones that run outside the OS at bootup to get to locked files that are inacessible from within Windows, I had one but stopped using it because it did'nt work with my encrypted partition.

Try them, I think those who do will see why these are superior applications or don't, does'nt matter to me.

As far as buying software, that's rarely necessary.

 

[Brent]

I hate IE.

I have been using Firefox for a long time now. Also the SeaMonkey e-mail program from Mozilla is pretty sweet.

 

[LakeMountD]

just do this, makes it a lot faster without downloading anything

1. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere in the "aboug:config" page and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

4. Restart Firefox

Holy **** that worked well thanks bro!

 

[spoolin]

I love fire fox. I is much faster. I do hear that IE is supposed to be coming out with a better one that firefox.

 

[Pioneer]

I love fire fox. I is much faster. I do hear that IE is supposed to be coming out with a better one that firefox.

doubtful, its going to have tabbed browsing and a few other things. FF already has all that stuff microsoft is actually catching up right now. plus IE will never be a open source program so others can mod it, FF on the other hand anyone and everyone can make an extention and mold their web browser the way they want.

i think microsoft has lost this battle, though they will still put it on every single PC loaded with windows.

 

[mmorpheuss]

Screw IE. Won't go back.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

i think microsoft has lost this battle, though they will still put it on every single PC loaded with windows.

To informed people they have, but accoridng to the stats here, 80% still don't know and haven't switched. So I tihnk they are far from losing to the general public...and that is what I tihnk they target anyway.

 

[rocko]

Just downloaded Firefox and it is great. thxs.

 

[Sunder]

I used to use FireFox, but now I use Opera. Technically I use both at the moment (both programs use independent proxy settings, which is good for people like me who like to use it at work and do bad things like piggyback on our client's proxy in case we're looking at stuff we don't want my company to find out out, etc).

Anyways, I find the Opera is usually a bit faster than FireFox. But the main reason why I use Opera more is that the "back/forward" commands are linked to a button press of the mouse. I'm sure there's a Firefox extension out there that does this too (or maybe a newer version does), but Opera's is on my default, and I can't imagine surfing without it.

As for what's the "best" browser - that's a tough one to say. It depends on what you consider "the best". While IE lacks many features now, and is more prone to viruses (due mainly to it's popularity only), it is by far the most "compatible" browser out there. While just being the most compatible doesn't make it the "best", it may still be the best option for average non-techie users who just want it to work the first time.

eg: Beta was superior to VHS in everyway (audio and video quality). BUT - there were more VHS tapes out there to rent than Beta, so VHS was the "best" to choose. Sucks, I know.

eg: The Amiga computer was superior to IBM PC's and Macs in almost everyway. (Or later on the NeXt computer, which many people never even heard of). But due to a lack of marketing, and financial power of their software availability, it was better for the regular users to buy a PC as is it was the most compatible with what everyone else used.

eg: It might be argued that diesel or propane powered vehicles (or something else) provides superior price/performance than gasoline, but since there are more gasoline pumps available, gas power is usually the "best" choice in the end for the average consumer.

I do however always recommend Firefox first for my friends (even though I use Opera more). Just never uninstall IE (most people can't anyway). I had to use IE a few times to view certain pages that died in Firefox and Opera.

I also hate monopolies, which is what Microsoft is, and I'm always hoping for more competition. I'm just not going to shoot myself in the foot over it like I used to. (I'm not even using Linux anymore...but I still hope it takes over).