Speed up your Firefox

If you use the Firefox browser, you owe it to yourself to try this simple tip to speed up your browser. I did it with the one I'm using now, and it really works.

(Note: If you do make these changes and you don't like the way things are working, just go back to the default settings. While these work for most, they might not render properly on everyone's machine.)

And if you've followed a previous tip I posted about switching to OpenDNS for your DNS settings, you'll have a pretty quick system.

These tips have been around for a couple of years now, since Firefox really started getting popular. But they still seem relevant and most people I've heard who have tried it are happy with the changes.

Here's one of the more popular ways to tweak your settings, although there are lots of others out there too. (See the But I used these directions (from the Free Repuplic blog):

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: (double click them to change)

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 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.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!

That's all there is to it. Remember to print out these directions before you start, or open a new tab and use that one to make the changes. When you're done, just close the tab or page you're using.

Let me know if this works for you.

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