Make Mozilla Firefox Fly

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited January 2005 in Science & Tech
No kidding, this tweak really works. I was surprised at the speed increase.
All you've got to do is type "about:config" into your address bar, wait for it to load, then alter the following entries: change "network.http.pipelining" to "true", "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true" and lastly "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 30, meaning it will be able to make 30 requests at once.
Thanks again to The Inquirer /

EDIT: OOPS! DO NOT change "maxrequests" to 30. Shorty explains why below.

Comments

  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited December 2004
    My maxrequests is set at 100. Haven't tried it at 30 and then 100.
  • Access_DeniedAccess_Denied tennessee
    edited December 2004
    will this make any change to dialup users such as myself? im on avg 45.2kb/s connection speed
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited December 2004
    Nice Tweak, speeded things up for me too. Thanks Leo!

    Access_Denied, if you click the link to the article, it says don't bother if you are not on broadband. Sorry :(

    Dexter...


    ///EDIT: RESET MY MAXREQUESTS TO DEFAULT AS PER SHORTY'S POST
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    You could also try this.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Do not do this:

    network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 30

    Why?
    Connections to a single HTTP 1.1 server are limited to two simultaneous connections. The HTTP 1.1 specification (RFC2616) mandates the two-connection limit. The four-connection limit for HTTP 1.0 is a self-imposed restriction that coincides with the standard that is used by a number of popular Web browsers.

    There will be some strict servers that will drop additional connections above those specified numbers. This settings violates the HTTP protocol, and gives you a speed boost by flooding the web server with 20-something connections for every single image and page request.These settings will not only cause many web servers to have problems, but they can also make your web browser be mistaken for a flood attack, which will make the server add your IP to an "ignore" list.

    The rest of the tweaks are fine and do help but don't up the connections. You are going to flood the hell out of some webservers (including the little server we have here). Read the HTTP protocol specification if you are don't believe me. I think the Inquirer would know better.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited December 2004
    Where did that quote come from, I'm curious? I don't know much about this stuff so I'll just trust Shorty's word... I'll test the other two though! :thumbsup:
  • TroganTrogan London, UK
    edited December 2004
    TheGr81 wrote:
    Where did that quote come from, I'm curious? I don't know much about this stuff so I'll just trust Shorty's word... I'll test the other two though! :thumbsup:

    I''ve put what shorty said back to default and made the other two changes
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Yeah. I've read it before on Mozillazine. I currently have mine set at 8 and haven't had a problem.
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited December 2004
    How in the hell do you save the changes?
  • TroganTrogan London, UK
    edited December 2004
    lol...right click and choose TOGGLE
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited December 2004
    Oh nuts. I wondered if it was something along those lines. Yeah, I changed mine to 8 or so and it seems just as fast. Is even that too much? Good call, Shorty.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Read what says :(

    You are making x connections (x being the number you have your connections setup to be) to the server. On servers like ours, a few too many connections will bring us down :(

    Yes you might get a speed increase but you will slow down sites & servers as more people take this route. Please don't do it.

    The limit is in the http 1.0/1.1 specifications for a reason.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    TheGr81 wrote:
    Where did that quote come from, I'm curious? I don't know much about this stuff so I'll just trust Shorty's word... I'll test the other two though! :thumbsup:
    Came from the mozilla developers forum. I find the thread and post it.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited December 2004
    Consider it changed. :thumbsup:
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    McBain wrote:
    How in the hell do you save the changes?
    Create a file named user.js in your Firefox profile, open it with notepad and, add the tweaks, save it and restart Firefox.
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Hm, OK, I've changed mine back. Why does the server accept more than 2 connections at a time though? Since it's the one that would experience negative effects...
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Webservers are stateless. They sit there listening for incoming connections. That's what they are designed to do. If a client decides to connect 30 times, then they connect 30 times. The by-product is the use of resources.

    If everyone decides to just grab 30 connections, then the server is working harder than it needs to serve information. Some servers will be brought to their knees.

    Webserver software is designed to follow the HTTP & HTTPS standards to the latter. If a browser contrevenes that standard, that's the browser/end users mistake, not the servers.
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    I understand how a webserver works, but you'd think at least for purposes of preventing DoS attacks there would be something in place. The server could trust that the client is following the part of the standard specifying no more than two simultaneous connections, but webservers can't survive on "trusting" code these days...
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    EMT wrote:
    I understand how a webserver works, but you'd think at least for purposes of preventing DoS attacks there would be something in place. The server could trust that the client is following the part of the standard specifying no more than two simultaneous connections, but webservers can't survive on "trusting" code these days...
    DOS attacks are mass packet flooding not making concurrent connections. Differentiation between the two is important to understanding this :)

    The issue comes with this. Browsers come out of the box (so to speak) set to work within the specifications. It's only when some bright spark decides to break the standards that the problem occurs. If standards are adhered to, then these issues never come up.

    There is no need to put additional overhead on the server and design in a "max connections per client" (Theoretically at least). Why should it?

    What's an issue is somebody deciding that the quickest way to improve the pace of their webpages to is to put the pressure on website owners, their hosting partners and their technology.

    Same goes with HTML coding. If standards were followed, then we wouldn't have the mess of browser compatibility that designers have to deal with :rolleyes:
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Oh... er... so webserver DoS isn't a bunch of SYNs directed at port 80?
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    EMT wrote:
    Oh... er... so webserver DoS isn't a bunch of SYNs directed at port 80?
    Not as universally common as the standard "flood the hell out of the interface with as many malformed TCP packets as possible".

    I never denied SYN attacks aren't part of it. It's what we all have to deal with if you run a site that runs any kind of service (HTTP, FTP, POP).

    The most common we have experienced at SM is packet floods. Ping us, you won't get a response. Thom also implemented max connections per IP to stop the "grab as many connections as possible" attacks we were sustaining. Not every site has an admin like -tk.

    That is why Im so against this. It's putting unnecessary traffic requirements & stress on webservers for nothing. The standards are there for a reason.

    All Im saying is don't add to a problem. People running servers have enough to deal with without people "accidently" flooding a server for connections without intending to DOS a site.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Very well, Shorty. I changed 'maxrequests' back and edited my thread starter. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Shorty,

    A poster at The Inq has now chastised the editor who put up the Firefox tweak article.

    "Mike:

    Ahoy there mates you let the proverbial bobcat out of the bag ...

    The dearly beloved "run the turbines at Military Power 'til they blow up" Scribner on your staff who suggests sticking their foot through the floorboards by tweaking Firefox & setting "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to "30" connections (This means it will make 30 requests at once.)

    Said Scribner, who is obviously a gamer & overclocker freak, _FORGOT_ to read the comments section at th4e bottom of the posting http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_faster.php#comments

    "#13 Great little tips, but only one problem, and that's that you're breaking servers by doing this. 3-5 requests is fine, but trying to do 30 requests at once puts some strain on the server. If two people try to access the same page at once with this set, that's 60 connections. Most httpd's are set to cut off after there are 100 connections made. So, 4 people with this set could not access the same site. I urge you to think things through before setting something like this and killing the websites you browse."

    Was the editor off having a pint when this one was lashed onto top billing?

    Tell Said Scribner, okay you can grab a lot of server bandwidth and therefore cut out everybody else. But that simply proves your grandmother didn't beat you about the head and ears often enough when you stole all the chocolate biscuits/cookies from the plate. The system works when folks share - not be a freaking bandwidth hog ...

    John O
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