Firefox Goodness
From time to time, people ask me about my old posts about Firefox tweaking. Since this is the third (and hopefully final) incarnation of my little tech weblog indulgence, I thought it was time to once again post the hacks.
For the following, start up Firefox, and in the address bar enter about:config. This will bring up a whole list of the browsers variables, and a second address bar called "Filter:" below the primary one. Now in this bar, type in network.http. This isolates the variables having to do with the browser's network connections. Now we're going to be changing some variables to speed things up. To change boolean (true / false) variables, simply double-click on the item, and to change the numerical ones, double-click on them then enter the appropriate number.
network.http.pipelining, true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining, true
for connections on broadband (dsl / cable):
network.http.max-connections, 64
network.http.max-connections-per-server, 21
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy, 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server, 8
for connections on narrowband (dial-up):
network.http.max-connections, 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server, 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy, 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server, 4
[edit: Get the Fasterfox extension to have all of this done for you instead.]
And just so this isn't just about the hacks, here are some keyboard shortcuts you might not have known about, but are infinitely useful. Hopefully they increase your productivity while browsing as they do mine.
Ctrl-Enter: appends "www" and ".com" to the end of a string in the address bar (e.g. type "google" into the address bar and press Ctrl-Enter)
Shift-Enter: appends "www" and ".net"
Ctrl-Shift-Enter: appends "www" and ".org"
Ctrl-T / Ctrl-left click / middle-click: creates a new tab / opens in new tab
Ctrl-N / Shift-left click: creates a new window / opens in new window
Ctrl-W: closes the current tab or window
Ctrl-F / forward slash: opens the "find on page" search bar
Get Firefox [Mozilla]
For the following, start up Firefox, and in the address bar enter about:config. This will bring up a whole list of the browsers variables, and a second address bar called "Filter:" below the primary one. Now in this bar, type in network.http. This isolates the variables having to do with the browser's network connections. Now we're going to be changing some variables to speed things up. To change boolean (true / false) variables, simply double-click on the item, and to change the numerical ones, double-click on them then enter the appropriate number.
network.http.pipelining, true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining, true
for connections on broadband (dsl / cable):
network.http.max-connections, 64
network.http.max-connections-per-server, 21
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy, 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server, 8
for connections on narrowband (dial-up):
network.http.max-connections, 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server, 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy, 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server, 4
[edit: Get the Fasterfox extension to have all of this done for you instead.]
And just so this isn't just about the hacks, here are some keyboard shortcuts you might not have known about, but are infinitely useful. Hopefully they increase your productivity while browsing as they do mine.
Ctrl-Enter: appends "www" and ".com" to the end of a string in the address bar (e.g. type "google" into the address bar and press Ctrl-Enter)
Shift-Enter: appends "www" and ".net"
Ctrl-Shift-Enter: appends "www" and ".org"
Ctrl-T / Ctrl-left click / middle-click: creates a new tab / opens in new tab
Ctrl-N / Shift-left click: creates a new window / opens in new window
Ctrl-W: closes the current tab or window
Ctrl-F / forward slash: opens the "find on page" search bar
Get Firefox [Mozilla]