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Speeding up Firefox the right way

Speeding up Firefox seems to be a meme going around the blogsphere lately. Most of the tips I’ve seen, though, are only for broadband connections with the latest hardware and only include some of the settings that would affect performance.

The Firefox Tweak Guide has the full details on how to speed up Firefox regardless of your connection or hardware, reprinted in part below. Don’t forget that the easiest way to tweak user files is with chromEdit extension.

Common to all configurations

These are the settings that seem to be common to all configuration files regardless of connection speed or computer speed with a couple of additions - plugin paths can be found with about:plugins and the bookmark menu delay is turned off.

user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);

Fast Computer Fast Connection

user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
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("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

A couple settings of note - Firefox is allocated 4096 KB of memory by default and in this configuration we give it roughly 65MB as denoted by the last line. This can be changed according to what is used.

Fast Computer, Slower Connection

This configuration is more suited to people without ultra fast connections. We are not talking about dial up connections but slower DSL / Cable connections.

user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
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("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

Fast Computer, Slow Connection

user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 8191);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

Slow Computer, Fast Connection

user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 1000000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 1000000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 4095);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 1000);
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("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);

One of the changes made for this particular configuration is the final line where the status bar is disabled for changing web pages to save processor time.

Slow Computer, Slow Connection

We have entered the doldrums of the dial-up user

user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);

Published Jan 28 2005, 06:33 AM by darrell

Filed under: Firefox

Comments

TrackBack said:

# January 28, 2005 2:58 PM

TrackBack said:

I am sure most Firefox power-users have seen the optimized builds for the various operating systems. It is also possible to make changes that will increase performance yourself using the about:config panel. Basically just run Firefox, type about:config in the...

# January 30, 2005 6:21 AM

TrackBack said:

Speeding up Firefox the right way (categories: firefox tips)...

# January 30, 2005 3:24 PM

letenky said:

Fine way to speed up loading firefox is to compress it's exe and dll libraries.

You'll get smaller exe size, thus shorter loading time - it minimalizes the difference between IE and FF. With this and with tuning described in this article you'll get the fastest browser ever build :)

Pretty good tool is UPX.org [command line only, good compression ratio, freeware].

# January 31, 2005 3:06 AM

Darrell said:

Thanks letenky, I will have to check that out.

# January 31, 2005 6:13 AM

svuntcake said:

Disabling IPv6 lookup can also greatly improve initial page load performance. It is enabled by default.

user_pref("network.dns.disableIPv6", true);

# January 31, 2005 8:00 AM

svuntcake said:

Here is a quick command to compress all .exe and .dll files with UPX.

After downloading and extracting UPX, execute the following statement on the command line in the extracted directory:

for %v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) upx "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\%v"

# January 31, 2005 8:12 AM

svuntcake said:

Oops, I forgot the do portion ;)

for %v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\%v"

# January 31, 2005 8:13 AM

Nick Douglas said:

For these directions, what's the line between "slow" and "fast" computers?

# January 31, 2005 8:24 AM

Darrell said:

Nick - At least a gigahertz processor with a decent amount of RAM.

# January 31, 2005 10:06 AM

Darrell said:

svuntcake - Thanks!

# January 31, 2005 10:06 AM

svuntcake said:

Here is a link to a mozillaZine thread for those interested in what some of the "voodoo" tuning variables do. Perhaps "Speeding up Firefox the right way" was written to avoid that confusing mess, but it is a good reference nontheless. There are quite a few trial and error posts that have proven quite helpful to me many times in the past.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=53650

# January 31, 2005 10:42 AM

TrackBack said:

Speeding up Firefox the right way (categories: firefox tweak) paper cd case (categories: cd) One Life, Take Two (categories: blogs parenting) XUL Apps > Tabbrowser Extensions - outsider reflex (categories: firefox tweak extensions)...

# January 31, 2005 4:26 PM

TrackBack said:

# January 31, 2005 7:41 PM

koz1000 said:

How come I see all of these blogs mention these little config hacks to speed up Firefox, but nobody mentions the Moox custom builds?

http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/

You might get a lot more speed out of a Firefox built for your K-RAD processor instead of a generic 586.

# January 31, 2005 10:17 PM

gongadze said:

Hi svuntcake!

Here is your quick command in batch file with decompress option.( for a symmetric world )
#################################################
@echo off
goto upxFirefox%1
:upxFirefox
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -v -9 %%v
exit
:upxFirefox-d
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -v -d %%v
exit
:upxFirefox-h
echo Usage: upxFirefox [OPTION]
echo Compresses the binaries without arguments
echo .
echo -d decompress the upxed firefox binaries.
echo -h print this help.
#################################################

# January 31, 2005 10:39 PM

bob said:

fast computer fast connection and fast computer slow connection both have

user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);

but fast computer slower connection does not have that setting: shurely shome mishtake?

# February 1, 2005 2:47 AM

heretic said:

lenetky:

'One way to speed up loading firefox is to compress it's exe and dll libraries.

You'll get smaller exe size, thus shorter loading time..."

are you off your swede? How is forcing me to decompress the binary and dlls before executing going to make things _faster_?

# February 1, 2005 7:11 AM

TrackBack said:

# February 1, 2005 12:11 PM

TrackBack said:

# February 3, 2005 2:47 AM

TrackBack said:

# February 7, 2005 8:18 AM

TrackBack said:

Coder Darrell Norton posts a follow-up to widely-distributed instructions on how to to speed up Firefox. The original tip applies to only the latest hardware and doesn't cover all the possible settings. Darrell's further explanation includes instructions for fast computers...

# February 7, 2005 9:36 AM

Josh said:

The network.http.max-* tweaks are _bad_.

9) Has anybody tried these new optimized settings for Mozilla/Firefox? They're tweaked and they give a big speed boost!

A:There appear to be a bunch of optimizations circling around which claim you can speed up your surfing if you're on a broadband connection. Before you apply any such tweaks, it's important to understand which category they fall into:

Pipelining Tweaks
These usually take the form of telling you to adjust settings in the "network.http.pipelining..." tree. These are quite safe, but may cause problems with older web servers which do not understand pipelining properly. Pipelining works by sending requests simultaneously over a single connection - this avoids the delay incurred by the latency between you and the server. Traditionally, HTTP clients go:

REQUEST ->
<- RESPONSE
REQUEST ->
<- RESPONSE

Pipelining changes this to:

REQUEST REQUEST ->
<- RESPONSE RESPONSE

This is a good optimization/tweak to apply as it increases speed for both you and the web server.

Connection Tweaks
The "other" type of optimization commonly seen instructs you to alter the "network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", "network.http.max-connections-per-server" and other related settings. 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:

The web server is often the hardest hit. The Apache web server maintains a number of "slots" which are processes lying around to handle requests as they come in. Since they usually come in at a steady rate, the server can create and destroy extra processes as needed to handle the load. When you and your "optimized" settings hit the server however, almost all of the slots that are idle are suddenly taken up by your browser. This forces the server to suddenly create a bunch of new processes to handle other traffic which is a CPU-intensive task. When you are done hogging up the slots, the server suddenly finds itself with way more processes than are needed for normal traffic, so it will kill off the extra ones.

What's worse is that since most tweaks involve such a high number of connections, once one element has been transferred, the connection is never used again. This forces the web server to hold all the connections in "keepalive" state as under normal circumstances, more than one request is sent per connection. TCP never gets a chance to automatically find the best RWIN for greatest speeds, load on routers between you and the server is increased thanks to all the extra packets... the whole basis of the HTTP/1.1 specification was to get away from the "one connection per element" days of HTTP/1.0, by applying these tweaks you are simply going back to the 1.0 days.

It's also worth pointing out that there exists an Apache module and netfilter settings that could cause your additional connections to be blocked from the server, resulting in very slow page load times, broken images and possibly even a complete IP ban for this "flooding" behaviour. Please, stick with pipelining and do not touch these settings. There is a very good reason why they are not the default.

If you have read and understood this entry thoroughly, you will notice that enabling pipelining will give you HIGHER performance than increasing the maximum number of connections! This is because with pipelining, even though there are only 2 connections to the target web server, you are still sending all your requests at once. Since you are re-using the same connection, TCP has a chance to tune the Receive Window, keep-alive is made useful and everyone is happy.

From http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1140297

# February 7, 2005 11:13 AM

TrackBack said:

# February 7, 2005 11:28 AM

moeffju said:

heretic:
> are you off your swede? How is forcing me to decompress the binary and dlls before executing going to make things _faster_?

Disk I/O is more expensive than memory I/O and CPU. Thus loading a smaller file, but decompressing it in memory, can be faster.

# February 7, 2005 5:37 PM

me said:

network.http.max-connections-per-server defaults to 8. Sure you don't want to revise your little scary story up there?

# February 7, 2005 8:34 PM

Josh said:

_Persistant_ connections default to 2. That said, doubling the number of concurrant connections to a web server is, if nothing else, _rude_.

# February 7, 2005 10:38 PM

TrackBack said:

Sue??os Transitables » Algunos enlaces

# February 8, 2005 2:16 AM

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# February 8, 2005 10:25 AM

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# February 8, 2005 6:06 PM

wewa said:

you should un italicize the config lines.
you make it harder to copy/paste into our firefox configs.
thanks.

# February 20, 2005 1:28 PM

TrackBack said:

Speeding up Firefox the right way Darrell Norton reports on several ways to speed up Firefox. Follow the link to get all the details. Speeding up Firefox seems to be a meme going around the blogsphere lately. Most of the...

# February 23, 2005 7:27 AM

The Official Website of Dan Crouch » Blog Archive » Why Aren’t You Using Firefox? said:

PingBack from http://www.tjrubley.com/2005/10/05/why-arent-you-using-firefox/

# April 30, 2006 8:57 PM

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# May 26, 2006 10:09 AM

ScottD's Musings said:

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# May 27, 2006 1:30 AM

Speeding up Firefox the right way at Cybergenie said:

PingBack from http://cybergenie.co.uk/article/2006/06/04/speeding-up-firefox-the-right-way/

# June 4, 2006 10:03 AM

Software » Speeding up Firefox the right way said:

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# November 26, 2006 11:43 PM

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# 主页设定：about:blank # 取消启动时候：检查是否为默认浏览器 # 在启动ff的快捷方式里面加入启动参数： /Prefetch:1，也就是比如：如 “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” /Prefetch:1 # 另外在你的 FF 快捷方式后面加上 -turbo (FF的启动速度也会加快) 如

# November 29, 2006 8:45 PM