Technical questions
For a while now I've been considering changing my web browser from Internet Explorer to Firefox, but can't quite make up my mind to make the switch. Can anyone tell me about the particular advantages of Firefox? And will I be able to import my favourites easily?
On a related subject, I've been having trouble with the internet lately, but I can't work out the reasons why or how to improve the situation.
The issue is that Twitter in particular is working very very slowly. Like, I click a link or scroll and 30 seconds later it responds. I sometimes have similar problems with facebook, but less frequently, and facebook has never worked brilliantly for me. I don't think it's my net connection being slow, because other sites seem to work very well, including image/gif heavy LJ sites and streaming on BBC iPlayer and other places. I'd kind of assumed it was Twitter itself, except that it worked brilliantly when I was on a uni computer the other day (and to make the matter even more confusing, I'm pretty sure the net connection at home and on campus is the same, since it's all on the university network).
These problems are a very recent development (as in, the last two weeks or so), which is adding to my confusion because nothing has really changed. I have a lot of tabs open at once, but the number has been consistent for a year and closing them doesn't seem to help. Memory use hasn't increased dramatically, and I still have lots left. And I used Twitter with relative ease about a month ago...
Switching betweeen tabs and windows is very slow, tabs often disappear from the IE icon on my (Windows 7) Start bar, and the program often stops responding altogether and has to be restarted. These last two have always happened occasionally, but were usually an indication that it was time to let the computer Shut Down rather than just Hibernate. Re-booting seems to have no effect in this case.
These things, combined with the high number of 'page loaded with errors' icons I seem to be getting makes me wonder whether it's a browser issue. Is that feasible? If so, would Firefox be better?
I honestly haven't a clue though, so an help would be great.