All an eagle would really like, is a teapot

All an eagle would really like, is a teapot

How to speed up FIREFOX 3.6?

Want a more speed in firefox. Pages takes too much time to respond. Then his blog is for you. Enjoy browsing via FIREFOX!!!

Firefox is the fastest and the most efficient web browser that I have ever found. The best feature is that you can configure it as you want. Millions of add-ons are available for firefox to make the web browsing more efficient and easier than ever. So enjoy the convenience of the world’s best browser. Click here to download Firefox 3.6 (7.94 MB) or press the button below to find out the latest release.

I will give you a list of configuration to do in FIREFOX in order to increase up your browsing speed.

NOTE: Some of these configuration may incompatible with other versions of firefox. Do at your own risk and comment if it 100% works.

Quit Firefox, run “firefox.exe –profilemanager”, and create a new profile to experiment on. Use the new profile as your default only if your performance improves. Only those changes needed from a default installation are mentioned in this guide.

1. Increase Cache, Reduce History Size

• In Options->Advanced->Network, increase Offline Storage (size of the disk cache) to 150 MB.
• In Options->Privacy, use Custom settings for history, and reduce length of remembered history to 15 days.

2. Customize General Advanced Options

In Options->Advanced->General->Accessibility:

• Check Search for text when I start typing
• Uncheck Use smooth scrolling
• Turn off spell checker if you ROTFLMAO on forums and don’t aspire to be a writer. Keep it on if you’re looking for a job.
• Uncheck Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup. On Windows, set Firefox as your default browser using Program Access and Defaults.

3. Remove Unused Search Engines

Drop-down In the search box, select Manage Search Engines…, and remove any search engines that you will never use.

4. Clean up bookmarks, avoid Live Bookmarks

If you have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox, you might have dead links, or even duplicate bookmarks. Clean them up using the CheckPlaces Firefox extension, and uninstall after you’re done.

Firefox checks Live Bookmarks every hour for updates. Use a dedicated RSS Reader like Google Reader instead. Delete the preset Latest Headlines Live Bookmark.

5. Disable the Auto Update

Firefox loading could be slow due to auto update. Follow the steps to disable the auto update

• Step 1: Go to the Tools - >Options- >Advanced- >Update
• Step 2: Uncheck all the selections and click OK.

6. Advanced About:Config Tweaks

The following two sections are advanced Firefox configuration changes that are simple to make. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar in an empty tab. Click ‘I’ll be careful, I promise!’. You can use Firefox’s Safe Mode and select ‘Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults’ to undo any changes you make. Also, entries you change are displayed in bold, and can be reset using the right-click context-menu.

If an entry does not exist, create it by right-clicking on an empty space, selecting New, and choosing the type of entry as listed.

• accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound [Boolean]: Change to False to avoid a sound alert if no match is found when you search for text.
• alerts.totalOpenTime [Integer]: Reduce time to show Download Complete alerts to 2000 (2 seconds).
• browser.bookmarks.max_backups [Integer]: Reduce number of bookmark backups to speed up shutdown from 5 to 2.
• browser.cache.disk.parent_directory [String]: Move your Firefox cache to a disk or partition different from your Windows drive by specifying the folder path here.
• browser.download.manager.openDelay [Integer]: Don’t open Downloads window for very short downloads. Set to 2000 (2 second delay).
• browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo [Integer]: Reduce number of closed tabs you can undo from 10 to 4.
• browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo [Integer]: Reduce number of closed windows you can undo from 3 to 1.
• browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab [Boolean]: Change to False, so that Firefox doesn’t accidentally shut down when you close the last tab.
• browser.urlbar.maxRichResults [Integer]: Reduce maximum number of results in Awesome Bar from 12 to 6.
• dom.popup_maximum [Integer]: Reduce maximum number of simultaneous popups from 20 to 3 or 5.
• security.dialog_enable_delay [Integer]: Reduce delay to wait before installing a new extension to 1000 (1 second). Setting to zero is not recommended because of security risks.
• browser.cache.memory.capacity [integer]: You can manage your memory consumption from here. It is set at default 50000. in case your system doesn't have lot of memory, like 512 MB or 1GB reduce the number to 15000 and click Ok.
• network.http.pipelining [Boolean]: Enabling the pipelining will allow you to send several request to the web server at a time. Double click it and make it true.
• network.http.pipelining.maxrequests [Integer]: Double-click the  setting. A text box will appear, type 8 into it and click ok.
• content.notify.ontimer [Boolean]: If this doesn’t exist create it and make it true.
• nglayout.initialpaint.delay [Integer]: This value denotes the seconds browser will wait before it acts on the information. So set is as 0.

7. Advanced Network Settings

These changes are recommended for broadband users with at least a 2 Mbps (256 kB/s) connection.

• network.dnsCacheEntries [Integer]: Increase number of DNS entries cached from default 20 to 512.
• network.dnsCacheExpiration [Integer]: Increase number of seconds DNS entries are cached from default 60 to 3600.
• network.dns.disableIPv6 [Boolean]: Disable IPv6 if your ISP doesn’t support it (most don’t).
• network.http.max-connections [Integer]: Increase maximum number of simultaneous connections to 48 or 96.
• network.http.max-connections-per-server [Integer]: Increase maximum connections per server from default 15 to 24.
• network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server [Integer]: Increase maximum persistent connections per server from default 6 to 12.
• network.http.pipelining [Boolean]: Change to True to enable HTTP Pipelining.
• network.http.pipelining.maxrequests [Integer]: Increase from default 4 to 8.
• network.prefetch-next [Boolean]: This specifies whether Firefox pre-fetches web pages (and associated cookies) even before you visit them. It is most frequently used to pre-load the first result of a Google search. If you want to improve security and don’t want Firefox to load pages you never actually visit, change this to False.

8. Install Fasterfox

Install the Fasterfox extension for Firefox. It not makes Firefox faster but also makes tuning easier.

9. How to download files faster in Firefox

To download files faster with Firefox you have a Firefox extension DownloadThemAll. It acts as your download manager.

or you can use following external download managers to get more speed when downloading files.

• Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads. Comprehensive error recovery and resume capability will restart broken or interrupted downloads due to lost connections, network problems, computer shutdowns, or unexpected power outages. Simple graphic user interface makes IDM user friendly and easy to use.Internet Download Manager has a smart download logic accelerator that features intelligent dynamic file segmentation and safe multipart downloading technology to accelerate your downloads. Unlike other download managers and accelerators Internet Download Manager segments downloaded files dynamically during download process and reuses available connections without additional connect and login stages to achieve best acceleration performance. You can download the version 5.18 with patch here (only for testing). I suppose you would buy it. Find more about IDM in http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com.
• FlashGet is a leading download manager and has the highest amount of users on the internet. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols and has excellent document management features. FlashGet is a freeware without any adware or spyware. Download FlashGet version 3.3 here. Find out more about FlashGet from http://www.flashget.com.
• Free download Manager (FDM) It is a powerful, easy-to-use and absolutely free download accelerator and manager. Moreover, FDM is 100% safe, open-source software distributed under GPL license. Download the version 3.0 here or find out more from http://www.freedownloadmanager.org.

10. Keyboard shortcuts to get instant results

There's a range of Firefox keyboard shortcuts that you can avail. You can surely speed up firefox as a power user. Here's 5 keyboard shortcuts

• Back/Forward Navigation: Alt + Left Arrow / Alt + Right Arrow
• Complete .com Address : Ctrl + Enter (When you’re in the URL bar)
• Zoom In / Out: Ctrl + / Ctrl -
• Bookmark all tabs: Ctrl + Shift + D
• Undo closed tab: Ctrl + Shift + T

If you do all of the above things correctly, I think you have now owned the optimum configuration for your favorite web browser. Restart FIREFOX and enjoy your new speed. If it works 100% please comment me. And of course suggestions, complains and questions are welcomed. Thank You!

Gayan Kalhara

Hey everybody,

Mail me: gayan_kalhara@live.com