Firefox Tuning

[Jeffy729]

Just a quick point... if you wanna test a "real world" site that appears to load slowly, try http://www.kingsofchaos.com ... my god that's slow (well, it's the only site that I've noticed being slow).

Tried that site on www.numion.com/Stopwatch and tried in on a stock Opera 7.23 (no tweaks).

Mozilla 1.6 with above user.js settings - 2.828 seconds
Opera 7.23 - 3.484 seconds

I ran a bunch of sites on with Stopwatch and Mozilla beat Opera about two times out of three. Usually it was the reverse without Laszlo's suggestions. Really does seem to help broadband. Thanks for the great tips!

[AnonEmoose]

as a rule of thumb....to my understanding (and complement laslo's explanaition) lower nglayout.initialpaint.delay settings allow partial resultsof the page to appear quicker but can lead to (much) longer load time overall.... higher settings lead to a what appears "slower" initial view of the page but generally quicker complete page load... so the number u choose is a trade off of those 2 things...... if u have a higher connection (dsl, cable) my guess is u want a LOWER setting since u are recieving data so quick even the slower overall page load is not that noticeable... On slower connections u should Higher the number even to 1000 as while they initial drawing of the page is slightly slower the overall page load is (much) quicker....i have found that the other settings really "tweak" & refine the nglayout.initialpaint.delay preference but overtweaking can lead to load time degradation on some pages (i personally don't use them)..... if u do use them follow laslo's suggestion to keep the other settings as multiple's

[BenBasson]

Post your results for this: http://www.numion.com/Stopwatch/start.h ... fchaos.com
with various browsers. It's the slowest loading site I know, and my results are:

IE6/Win 2.6 seconds (First load)
Fx0.8/Win 3.2 seconds (First load)
IE6/Win 0.6 seconds (Refresh)
Fx0.8/Win 4.6 seconds (Refresh - surely this cant be right?)

I'm using an AMD 2400+ and:

Code: Select all

user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 8191);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 500);

user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);

// Put an end to blinking text!
user_pref("browser.blink_allowed", false);

// Cache Tweak
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

// Send Link Referrer Strings Only (Not Images)
user_pref("network.http.sendRefererHeader", 1);

[ehume]

Indeed, it does take longer to refresh on some sites than it takes to load the first time. I tried it with nglayout set to 0 and to 100, with two different versions of Fx 0.8+.

I think the reason is that the Moz core that Fx is built upon checks expiration dates and such rather than simply starting with a brand new load. I seem to recall something like that when they were discussing the infamous Back bug.

[Chrysalis]

guys you both have the exact of opposite of what I get

IE and firefox load initial pages at almost the same speed for me, firefox is normally a bit faster.

when it comes to refreshing IE is sometimes slower then the initial load it is THAT slow.

Firefox rules the roost on refreshing, I ran the test here is my results.

IE6 Initial Load - 16.533
IE6 Refresh - 12.658
Firefox Initial Load - 08.533
Firefox Refresh - 01.258

Connection - 1mbit Cable
PC - XP, amd xp2200+

My initial paint delay is set to 750 although I am considering raising it as I quite often see pages still been drawn which makes me guess its too low.

[BenBasson]

I think the reason is that the Moz core that Fx is built upon checks expiration dates and such rather than simply starting with a brand new load.

In which case it makes sense that it'd take longer on a page with images/crap thrown everywhere. Thanks.

[Nforcr14]

I had problems on the initial load of the pages but here's the time for the refreshings:

http://www.numion.com/Stopwatch/start.h ... fchaos.com

Firefox: 3.636 secs
Opera: 3.786 secs
MyIE2: 3.985
K-meleon: 2.684

[Chrysalis]

IE6 is very very poor on multiple windows, and on back/forward if you have 4+ windows open when clicking back IE takes a very long time, firefox is instant, I think firefox grabs the images of the hd whilst IE is checking the web for updated images.

[IEsux]

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests


* Description: maximum number of consecutive requests in one pipeline.
* Type: integer
* Limit: 8
* Default: 4
* Additional Info: nsHTTP.h. Optimal value depends on connection bandwidth/latency.
* Recommendation: 8. While it doesn't hurt to set it to 100 like in other tweak examples, it will have no effect whatsoever because of the mentioned limit.

The mx isnt 8. I have mine set on 14.

[IEsux]

Just a quick point... if you wanna test a "real world" site that appears to load slowly, try http://www.kingsofchaos.com ... my god that's slow (well, it's the only site that I've noticed being slow).

Tried that site on www.numion.com/Stopwatch and tried in on a stock Opera 7.23 (no tweaks).

Mozilla 1.6 with above user.js settings - 2.828 seconds
Opera 7.23 - 3.484 seconds

I ran a bunch of sites on with Stopwatch and Mozilla beat Opera about two times out of three. Usually it was the reverse without Laszlo's suggestions. Really does seem to help broadband. Thanks for the great tips!

mines 6.609 with image rendering tweaks with Firefox.

[MonkeeSage]

Nice tips (and documentation)! :)

Here are a few that are not so much for speed, as for general network proformance:

-

network.dnsCacheExpiration: seconds
network.dnsCacheEntries: integer
nsDNSService2.cpp

-

network.ftp.idleConnectionTimeout: seconds
default: 5 minutes (5 * 60)
nsFtpProtocolHandler.cpp

-

network.http.keep-alive.timeout: seconds
network.http.request.max-start-delay: seconds
network.http.connect.timeout: seconds
nsHttpHandler.cpp

-

So, for example:

Code: Select all

user_pref("network.dnsCacheExpiration", 360); // 6 minutes
user_pref("network.dnsCacheEntries", 100);
user_pref("network.ftp.idleConnectionTimeout", 60); // 1 minute
user_pref("network.http.keep-alive.timeout", 30);
user_pref("network.http.request.max-start-delay", 5);
user_pref("network.http.connect.timeout", 30);

Shelumi`El
Jordan

S.D.G

[Chrysalis]

the dns ones are interesting, I set mine to 3600 heh

[ehume]

Shelumi`El
Jordan

S.D.G

Hey! Welcome back! You write great extensions!

[laszlo]

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

...
The mx isnt 8. I have mine set on 14.

You compiled yourself and changed the mentioned header file? Then yes.

Otherwise the 8 is hardcoded and can't be overridden.

network.dnsCacheExpiration: seconds
network.dnsCacheEntries: integer
nsDNSService2.cpp
-
network.ftp.idleConnectionTimeout: seconds
default: 5 minutes (5 * 60)
nsFtpProtocolHandler.cpp
-
network.http.keep-alive.timeout: seconds
network.http.request.max-start-delay: seconds
network.http.connect.timeout: seconds
nsHttpHandler.cpp

Thanks for this. That's one of the purposes of this thread: contributing additional settings, including defaults and pointers to code/documentation, so go on if you know additional ones.

[apeiron]

IMO, this thread needs to go sticky. That way, when someone says "FF is slow! Make it faster!", we can point them to this thread, and they can find it easily.