Speed up FireFox

[az]

Pipelining is actually a nice technique and even reduces traffic a bit, and of course total latency and thus time until a site has finished loading. Opera doesn't do pipelining yet, I forgot why, Opera opens multiple connections to a server (actually half of the ones you specify in max connections per server usually), but requests only one element per connection at a time, but since multiple connections (4 by default) are open to a server, as many elements are downloaded at the same time. AFAIK, connections to servers are also opened while a page is loading in apprehension of future elements that need to be downloaded; these connections are kept open for a certain time, and when a new element (a picture, for instance) needs to be loaded (because the HTML has loaded to a point where a graphic is referenced and thus Opera now knows the URI it needs to request this element from), the request for that element is sent in one of the pre-opened connections, which reduces lag. The downsides are slightly increased load on the server for connections that are kept open preemptively. Many servers cap the maximum connections to an IP, some at two, some higher. Opera has to detect this, because otherwise some pictures simply wouldn't load (i.e. they are requested on connection #3, but never sent due to the cap). Thus, too high a setting for "max connections to a server" can actually increase loading time (because elements are requested but not sent, and need to be re-requested after a time-out), or even result in elements failing to load or pages seeming to load endlessly even if they're clearly finished loading (because many webservers are misconfigured, I think they just drop connections when their limit is reached without informing the client). If you want, I can dig up the post from Opera's senior developer on the Opera forums on this.

Optimum settings for Opera on broadband are usually 8 max connections per server and 128 max connections overall.

Ideally, a client would open multiple connections and pipeline requests in these.

AZ

[Liquid Snake]

Another explanation of these tweaks at http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/007164.html:

After seeing at least a couple dozen blog posts all referencing these changes to "speed up Firefox", I thought it would be worth a little explanation.

Yes, enabling HTTP pipelining can dramatically improve networking performance. The downside, and the reason it's not enabled by default, is that it can prevent Web pages from displaying correctly. If you've enabled this, and you find pages that aren't displaying correctly, please don't blame Firefox or the Web developer. It's probably the fact that you enabled an "unsupported" feature which is incompatible with some Web servers and proxy servers.

The second change, setting the initial paint delay at zero, may get you some content on the screen faster, but it's worth noting that it will dramatically slow down the time it takes the entire page to display. Here's what's going on. Gecko, Firefox's rendering engine, is trying to optimize between the cost of waiting for a bit more data versus doing more painting and reflows as new data comes in. Waiting a bit longer before it starts painting the page gives Gecko a chance to receive more content before chewing up CPU cycles to render and reflow the document. If you drop this value down to zero or near zero, that means you'll see the page start displaying a bit earlier, but not having received much data in that short interval, you'll have a lot more paint and reflow cycles to complete rendering of the page.

This one probably comes down to a combination of bandwidth, CPU speed, and personal preference. If it works for you, and you don't mind the side-effects, then great. Just note that what works for one person/system, may not work for another.

Yes, there are tuning change you can make (even at compile time, see Moox' optimized builds) that will dramatically alter the performance characteristics of Firefox. Feel free to experiment, but remember that most of the defaults are defaults for a reason. If your browser starts misbehaving or web sites look broken, it might be worth going back to default settings.

[Helevitia]

I had to revert back to default. My connections would hang 80% of the time. I would only get half page loads or less. Now back to default and everything works again. Not sure why?

Dave

btw - I do notice a slowdown since reverting back, so it defintely works, but something is wrong for me.

[az]

Try using lower values for pipelining etc., or use a better browser

AZ

[Helevitia]

Never heard of oepra

[az]

Grrr! That's what I get for typing when tired. Someone please get me a beer

(Actually, wait for the next version of Opera before you join the good side - the migration from FF will be lots easier).

AZ

[Helevitia]

OK, I tried Opera for the first time in a few years and I have to say, WOW!

It is very fast and the default setup si really nice actually. It actually blows away Firefox in speed even with the speed settings above. Very impressed so far. I'll keep using it and see how I like it.

Dave

[az]

Great! If you have ANY problems, questions, want features etc, just ask

AZ

[knirfie]

On 30 connections Firefox still seems slower then Opera... On a 100 it's a close tie between the two...

[K6-III]

What really helps Firefox, at least for me, is the new Adblock extension.

Block all the ads and there is less to load...

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by Wombat
A nice improvement here.

Ditto. Much better here.

[Kooldino]

Adding that variable and setting it to 0 screwed me due to the way our firewall is set up at work. It would refuse to load some pages. I got rid of it, and it works ok again, it's just a tad longer wait to render a page.