Why is Firefox so SLOW?

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
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Xorr
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Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am

Why is Firefox so SLOW?

Post by Xorr »

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?
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makaiguy
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Post by makaiguy »

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?
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 115.0.02 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 115.2.0/115.0.1 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
Xorr
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Post by Xorr »

It says "transferring data from", then the website address. The scroll bar also seems very slow, ie if I try scrolling down the page, it is slow compared to IE.

Also, I'm using FF 1.5.0.3, with only Adblock Plus (which when turned off does not seem to make a difference) as an extension.
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malliz
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Post by malliz »

Hi nuff nuff back for another ip ban?^
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Xorr
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Post by Xorr »

Guest, don't get this thread locked, I want an answer. I know Firefox is slower than IE, that's certain. I'm just not sure why it's so much slower than I ever thought it would be.
spiritman
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Post by spiritman »

So if it proven that FF is slower so what? What are you trying to prove?
Xorr
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Post by Xorr »

I don't mind it being slower...I switched knowing it was slower. My problem is that it seems so slow, it loads pages as if I were on dial-up, not a 3-4Mb high speed connection. I don't think it should be this slow.
spiritman
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Post by spiritman »

Spammer, I smell a ban coming.
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makaiguy
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Post by makaiguy »

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.
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 115.0.02 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 115.2.0/115.0.1 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
Xorr
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Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am

Post by Xorr »

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.
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James
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Re: Why is Firefox so SLOW?

Post by James »

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
Xorr
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Post by Xorr »

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?
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makaiguy
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Post by makaiguy »

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.
Doug Wilson
Win10 64bit: FF 115.0.02 64bit, TB 102.12.0 32-bit ║ Android 13/10: FF 115.2.0/115.0.1 ║ No TB for Android available, dammit!
What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away - Doobie Brothers
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FX>IE
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Post by FX>IE »

I would have task manager meter running in the background to see if your CPU is bogged down with something while doing your page downloads. It shouldn't be. I've seen that once or twice, and it was Firefox causing it, so I restarted FX and all was well again.
FirefoxOnMyPowerBook
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Post by FirefoxOnMyPowerBook »

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.
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