Why is Firefox so SLOW?
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am
Why is Firefox so SLOW?
I don't get it. I checked on the standard fixes for speeding up Firefox, such as entering about:config and setting:
network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
to "true"
and setting:
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
to 30.
And still it loads pages like a sloth on a lazy day compared to IE. There must be a way to speed it up. I can't seem to find any other fixes to speed it up. I'll go to various phpBB web discussion forums, and while IE loads the page almost as fast as I can blink, Firefox takes its sweet time. I have Comcast and average 3-4Mb downoads, but FF tends to make it feel like dial up speeds.
Is there anything I can do to get it to compare to IE in speed?
network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
to "true"
and setting:
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
to 30.
And still it loads pages like a sloth on a lazy day compared to IE. There must be a way to speed it up. I can't seem to find any other fixes to speed it up. I'll go to various phpBB web discussion forums, and while IE loads the page almost as fast as I can blink, Firefox takes its sweet time. I have Comcast and average 3-4Mb downoads, but FF tends to make it feel like dial up speeds.
Is there anything I can do to get it to compare to IE in speed?
- makaiguy
- Posts: 16878
- Joined: November 18th, 2002, 6:44 pm
- Location: Somewhere in SE USA
- Contact:
The question really is not "Why is Firefox so slow?", since for most of us it every bit as fast as IE, or some think even faster.
The question is "Why is YOUR installation of Firefox so slow?". And for this, we'll need some clues from you.
To begin with, observe the status bar at the bottom of the FFox window. What does it say when these delays are taking place?
The question is "Why is YOUR installation of Firefox so slow?". And for this, we'll need some clues from you.
To begin with, observe the status bar at the bottom of the FFox window. What does it say when these delays are taking place?
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 124.0.2 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 124.2.0/115.9.0 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
Win10 64bit: FF 124.0.2 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 124.2.0/115.9.0 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am
- makaiguy
- Posts: 16878
- Joined: November 18th, 2002, 6:44 pm
- Location: Somewhere in SE USA
- Contact:
Most simple pages download for me so fast that I don't even get to see the "transferring data from" status message -- 1.5Mb DSL connection.
Got anything on your system that might be interfering? Firewall and/or antivirus utility? If you try to turn these off temporarily for testing purposes, note that many of them will only disable the user interface but leave the main utility running in the background. You may need to set them not to load on startup and reboot to really have them turned off for your test.
Got anything on your system that might be interfering? Firewall and/or antivirus utility? If you try to turn these off temporarily for testing purposes, note that many of them will only disable the user interface but leave the main utility running in the background. You may need to set them not to load on startup and reboot to really have them turned off for your test.
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 124.0.2 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 124.2.0/115.9.0 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
Win10 64bit: FF 124.0.2 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 124.2.0/115.9.0 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am
I run Zone Alarm (free version) and Kaspersky Antivirus, and neither seems to be the issue. I tried starting up without them and that didn't help/.
It seems that when I switched to 1.5.0.3 it sped up a bit, but it's still running a lot slower than I thought it would. Anf for the life of me I cannot fix another (perhaps related?) problem. When I first boot up and double-click the FF icon on the desktop, it never loads. After 2-3 minutes, I have to hit CTRL/ALT/DEL and end task, then double-click the FF icon again before it will open (sometimes I have to do this several times).
And for that I have tried starting in FF safe mode (no difference), recreating the desktop icon, uninstalling and deleting all traces of FF off my computer and reinstalling fresh, thestandard diagnostic, etc. I suspect the two are related, though I have no idea why.
It seems that when I switched to 1.5.0.3 it sped up a bit, but it's still running a lot slower than I thought it would. Anf for the life of me I cannot fix another (perhaps related?) problem. When I first boot up and double-click the FF icon on the desktop, it never loads. After 2-3 minutes, I have to hit CTRL/ALT/DEL and end task, then double-click the FF icon again before it will open (sometimes I have to do this several times).
And for that I have tried starting in FF safe mode (no difference), recreating the desktop icon, uninstalling and deleting all traces of FF off my computer and reinstalling fresh, thestandard diagnostic, etc. I suspect the two are related, though I have no idea why.
- James
- Moderator
- Posts: 28005
- Joined: June 18th, 2003, 3:07 pm
- Location: Made in Canada
Re: Why is Firefox so SLOW?
Xorr wrote:I don't get it. I checked on the standard fixes for speeding up Firefox
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
to 30.
Not really standard fixes as the source you found this is misinformed as the there is no point setting "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 30 as the max is capped at 8 no matter the number.
Firefox Tuning: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=53650
http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries#Network..2A
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http. ... axrequests
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am
Also, I noticed that the most common thing I see in the status bar at the bottom is "read". For example, if I got to www.dvdempire.com , it loads very slowly, and at the bottom of Firefox (status bar) it says:
Read www.dvdempire.com
That seems to be the most common type of slow load, when it says "read".
Does that give you any more to work with?
Read www.dvdempire.com
That seems to be the most common type of slow load, when it says "read".
Does that give you any more to work with?
- makaiguy
- Posts: 16878
- Joined: November 18th, 2002, 6:44 pm
- Location: Somewhere in SE USA
- Contact:
Xorr - 'fraid I can't help much at this point. What I know about the program is mostly from trial and error, and what I've picked up over the last several years from these forums.
Your status bar isn't displaying "Looking up [server name]" which would indicate a delay in the DNS lookup. "Waiting for [server name]" is displayed when the http request has been sent but nothing has been received yet. "Transferring" is displayed when it is actually transferring data, and of course can be stalled out by net congestion, overloading of the source server (common if there are links to overloaded ad servers on the page), or maybe slow processing by a local firewall or antivirus program. But "Read" flashes by on my status bar so quickly I didn't even know that was a possible status message - I never even see it.
Hopefully that will give somebody more knowledgeable than I a needed clue.
Your status bar isn't displaying "Looking up [server name]" which would indicate a delay in the DNS lookup. "Waiting for [server name]" is displayed when the http request has been sent but nothing has been received yet. "Transferring" is displayed when it is actually transferring data, and of course can be stalled out by net congestion, overloading of the source server (common if there are links to overloaded ad servers on the page), or maybe slow processing by a local firewall or antivirus program. But "Read" flashes by on my status bar so quickly I didn't even know that was a possible status message - I never even see it.
Hopefully that will give somebody more knowledgeable than I a needed clue.
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 124.0.2 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 124.2.0/115.9.0 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
Win10 64bit: FF 124.0.2 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 124.2.0/115.9.0 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
- FX>IE
- Posts: 37
- Joined: April 30th, 2006, 1:04 pm
-
- Guest
Please will someone be honest about the fact that firefox is becoming slower with every new release.
I have an Apple PowerBook and Safari is just so so much faster than Firefox which didn't used to be the case.
I don't want to and shouldn't have to try speeding up Firefox with little tweaks. I don't have the time for that. I just wish they would get the speed of firefox back even if it means cutting out some features.
I have an Apple PowerBook and Safari is just so so much faster than Firefox which didn't used to be the case.
I don't want to and shouldn't have to try speeding up Firefox with little tweaks. I don't have the time for that. I just wish they would get the speed of firefox back even if it means cutting out some features.