Firefox speed booster, there's gotta be a downside
 

http://bot2k3.net/forum/?showtopic=2840

I came across this forum discussing a patch to triple the speed of downloads when using Firefox. Being suspicious by nature, I think that anything too good to be true probably is, what do you guys think?

Well, from reading that thread, it sounds like his patch makes Firefox connect to the remote server multiple times--possibly as much as one connection per item to download from the server.

Usually the browser opens one connection to the server, downloads the HTML file that is the page, then starts sucking down files referred to in that page--images, javascript files, stylesheets, etc. through that same connection. Evidently his patch makes Firefox download those files simultaneously rather than one at a time.

In theory, this should speed up page rendering dramatically. But there's a reason Firefox doesn't do that by default--it's pretty rude to the remote server. If every browser did this, it wouldn't take many people surfing the site to max out the server.

That and, I'm not big on downloading and installing software written by some guy on a forum. Who knows what's tagging along on that thing.

Can't hurt to try it, Be right back with some test data.

Seems that all it does is open another connection to the remote server, as a test i just did a single download from dl.com using firefox i was hitting 650 KB/s
same file downloading under IE is getting me 453 KB/s. Make up your own minds i guess, i scanned it with avg and its clean. Nothing else has been installed on my system sence running it.

Discussions on MozillaZine:
What's with Luke Trewin's Firefox Patcher? - MozillaZine Forums
FireFox Speed Patch? - MozillaZine Forums

Apparantly, it just adds tweaks that you can do yourself, using this thread:
Firefox Tuning - MozillaZine Forums. Lots of interesting items in there. I tried some of these tweaks, and found that I couldn't connect to my bank anymore. So, keep note of what you changed.

Yeah, for SSL sessions, which of the multiple sessions does your browser use. I was going to ask that, but it seems you've found the answer Redlemon.

The apparent speed in Firefox does increase. Opera also had a setting to bump up the number of connections since some 3.x version.

I installed it and I thoroughly enjoy it. This helps out a TON!

I think it's kinda rude to remote servers (I have one myself) and hope it doesn't catch on too much. It provides a headache for admins and may get you blacklisted. also...the guy should use .xpi which is standard for all mozilla executables. user at your own PERIL
*goes to sweep patch under rug*

Just to point it out again:
The linked thread describes each of the options, tells you what the default is and what effect changing each will have, and tells you if it is 'acceptable' to other servers. Don't bother with the patch, get your hands dirty and get under the hood. That's what makes Firefox fun.

I want to get rid of this thing, how do I do it?

whocarz: Look at my link, just above your post. It lists all of the settings that speed booster affects, what the different options are for each setting, as well as what the 'default' and 'recommended' settings are.

Or, you could create a new profile and start fresh.

i never understood these kinds of things. why would you need to increase your download speed in firefox? how much can you possibly be downloading from a browser? most i can think of would be linux iso's from an http source but those take no time anyway with a cable connection. Its things like this that are going to ruin it for everyone when they start introducing connection caps and stricter bandwidth caps!

possibly, a few people useualy are the ones that ruin it for everyone else, altho im sure if it gets realy popular servers will find ways to deal/block it.

I'm going to double-post this, once in this speed thread, once in the other, for those people who don't follow the links. Asa (one of the main Firefox developers) discusses why these are not the default settings in this blog post (emphasis added):
I tried pipelining, and I couldn't use my bank's website anymore.

Broadband firefox users: beef up your loading speed
 

For those Firefox people using broadband, try this to beef up your page loading times. I found it on another forum, it's a little gem.

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


Notice the *ping, i'm loaded* effect that your firefox now has. Nice isn't it?

:thumbsup:



Edit: oopskido, didn't use the search function did i? :lol:

lol, you didnt happen to find that on the City of Heroes forums, did ya?

That's where I found it. :p

Okay, someone close this. It's repetative and been discussed on teh COMPUTER FORUM (http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...ght=pipelining ; http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...ght=pipelining ; http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...ght=pipelining) a few times before now.

Get a clue, and use the search.

Thank you, have a nice day.

These are EXTREMELY DAMAGING "optimizations" to apply and should be avoided at all costs. These settings violate the HTTP protocol, which recommends a limit of 2 connections per server. When you increase it beyond that, a lot of bad things begin to happen.

Since this is the older of the threads on this topic, wouldn't it make more sense to close down the newer copycat ones? I'm just sayin'... y'know. Get a clue.

Billege's comment was posted in response to stevie667, who created a separate thread, before that thread was merged with this one.

That said, let this be a reminder that it's better to use the report this post function or to contact a moderator through some other means than to make complaining posts in the problem threads.

I didn't realize the little red and white triangle was the report a post button. I feel slightly annoyed with myself for missing that. I looked all over hell and back for the Report a Post button on the page, and missed it right there.....figures....

I tried to get a mod on IRC and pasted the link to the thread I was referencing, but didn't get anyone in the brief time I was on.

I complained in the thread, because I was choosing to express my annoyance at yet one more person, the fourth (by my three second search), posting this. Especially since it was in general discussion.

Lastly, yesterday was a tough, mostly dissapointing, day for me; my grumpiness certainly carried over.

OK we're all still friends here. Thanks for the update SM70.