Making Firefox Faster

[JHudd]

Here is good blog about tweaking some Firefox settings to increase the speed.

A handful of Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed : Boy Genius Report

 

[cyclonemaniac7]

Thanks! These are awesome.

 

[mwitt]

Has anyone already done this? Does it really work?

 

[JHudd]

I just did everything but the optional tweaks and it does seem faster. I am not really sure what I did but the blog is usually pretty good about these things.

 

[CTAClone]

Have no idea what I did but I feel like my internet is on super speed now. Amazingly fast now.

 

[FlashGordon]

Well, if we're all without internet in the morning, we know who to blame. :wink:

Thanks for the link! :notworthy:

 

[JHudd]

Well, if we're all without internet in the morning, we know who to blame. :wink:

Thanks for the link! :notworthy:

That is what I was worried about as well but I tried it for a little while before I posted it just to be sure. The real question is did anyone write down the default values that we all just changed? I know I forgot about it.

 

[cstrunk]

Thanks for the link. I changed most of them and it seems to have helped!

 

[CycloneErik]

That is what I was worried about as well but I tried it for a little while before I posted it just to be sure. The real question is did anyone write down the default values that we all just changed? I know I forgot about it.

If it fails, shouldn't there be something to reset to default settings in your properties or something? No matter what, you should be OK.

 

[FlashGordon]

That is what I was worried about as well but I tried it for a little while before I posted it just to be sure. The real question is did anyone write down the default values that we all just changed? I know I forgot about it.

There should have only been two that changed, and the two changed to true from false. Mine were -1 on the first step and 4 on the second step.

 

[LindenCy]

There should have only been two that changed, and the two changed to true from false. Mine were -1 on the first step and 4 on the second step.

Mine too. I didn't do everything, but it did speed up page loads. Any Comp Sci guys on here that can actually explain what is going on? (I minored in it, but that was 10 years ago) :smile:

 

[JHudd]

Here is what a user wrote in the comments below the original blog post.

USER JJ

A serious word of caution here.
1. browser.session.history is simply modifying how many pages of memory can be used to to make your going backward/forward etc. for effective. So in this case modifying this will improve performance or the system (if your resources are short) but it comes at a cost for other aspects of browser behavior that may be less desirable. This is simply a trade off of where the resources are used and how you use the system.
2. pipelining is a method of stacking all the requests from the browser together to prevent waiting for answer each time. this is actually and option built into the HTTP protocol itself. This option might work if the site is using components (all of them) which can support this activity - and the pages can be served this way. However many sites will not want this because it risks impacting the load and performance of their servers and reducing the ability of the infrastructure manage the requests. On some sites this may cause problems or get you kicked off.
3. The initial paint delay is just about loading what ever it gets as soon as it gets it. This is yet another trade off, if there is a lot more content coming then the browser/engine will use even more time and resources painting everything again and you will be actually waiting longer for the “final” page/image. (look up reflow)
4. You do not want to change the ipv6 options unless it there is a clarity on its benefits vs. impact (again may cause problems for some sites).
5. All but the last settings are again only tradeoffs of WHEN actions are done not making them more effective (there is no free lunch. The full path setting is simply a debug setting which rarely improve performance (it means do more processing)
6. The final item actually is the one that can benefit you but again only if that behavior is not a problem for how you use your system. If you have a lot of apps open and switch back and forth, run out of resources then it might be good. Especially if you have limited resources on your system (i.e. 1GB or less of RAM) Again as before this is a left and right hand issue because when you maximize the app it will have to reacquire the resources it needs.
So if your problem is you use FF for hours with lots of tabs and notice a performance impact try the last suggestion (but you have to minimize the app.
A final note. All of these should come with a big disclaimer that you need to remember any of these manual changes because there is no way of understanding their future impact (esp ipv6) and they may not be reset with patches and upgrades.. You don’t want to have problems in the future and never think about those little settings you changed.

 

[jumbopackage]

Pipelining is probably the biggest boost here, IMO, and I see no reason that you shouldn't turn it on, though turning it off by default is probably a good move on behalf of firefox developers.

Yes, it CAN increase the server load, because it increases the number of requests in a given period of time, though it doesn't change the number of requests over an average period of time (if that makes sense). That time frame is on the order of a few milliseconds, though, for a high speed connection.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Because Firefox isn't running fast enough for me already?

Most of my "speed problems" with Firefox have nothing to do with Firefox at all - more like Mediascam going through their daily network slowages and outages...