FireFox, Am I the Only One Getting Fed Up?

[Not4wood]

Because of the way this thread has been going, I had gone in and flushed out my temp directories for both FF and my IE7. They both fly, real fast but this version of FF is a drop faster.

I have been using Firefox for many years and before that I was a Netscape person.

Because I've been around on the net a while, I still use both Firefox and IE and even though I am using IE less and less I still end up cranking it up once in a while.

[wingspar]

I’ve used FF for years with no problems. Recently, some program installed an extension to FF without asking me or anything. After that, FF was slow to load, and slow to run. Took me a while to figure out what happened, but I removed the program that did the installations, and the FF extension it loaded, and FF is back to opening in a flash, and running fine. Probably something like that is slowing FF down on your machine. Clean out your temp directories and cache. I do that several times a day. If it’s been a while since you have done that, or have never done that, it will help to speed things up.

[Dave R.]

Ok, that sounds good, but I admittedly don't know how to do as you suggest. Shows my lack of computer skills, but there may be others besides myself watching this that would like to understand better. Would you or someone else mind giving step by step instructions? Thanks

Originally Posted by wingspar

I’ve used FF for years with no problems. Recently, some program installed an extension to FF without asking me or anything. After that, FF was slow to load, and slow to run. Took me a while to figure out what happened, but I removed the program that did the installations, and the FF extension it loaded, and FF is back to opening in a flash, and running fine. Probably something like that is slowing FF down on your machine. Clean out your temp directories and cache. I do that several times a day. If it’s been a while since you have done that, or have never done that, it will help to speed things up.

[400duser]

Tbh, I am not a great fan of firefox, why people believe that open source software is safer than Internet Explorer, ok, it has its own failings, but I tend to avoid banking online, unless I absolutely have to

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by brice

Chrome is from the Walmart of the Internet.

I normally don't worry about which company created the application. I just judge it by how useful or interesting it is to me. Google has done some innovative things with its browser.

[gpatch]

I downloaded FireFox six weeks ago and run it on my MacBook. Havn't had the first problem with it. Its never froze up once.

I don't know about the speed because I've used nothing else except IE on the windows Machine I had before.
Glenn

[~Emily~]

They all have problems at one time or another but I still like FF, mainly because of the add-ons and extensions. Yes, being aware of computer hardware and software configurations may help but some tweaks may also help a bit.

Firefox-Tweaks:
- In the address bar, type “about:config” and hit return. Next, in the filter field, type “network.http” and change the following settings
(double-click on them to change them):
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once, if you see a reduction in performance, reduce it to 20, etc.
Finally, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This new value is the amount of time the browser waits (0) before it responds to the information that it receives.

[Gna]

Originally Posted by gpatch

I downloaded FireFox six weeks ago and run it on my MacBook. Havn't had the first problem with it. Its never froze up once.

I don't know about the speed because I've used nothing else except IE on the windows Machine I had before.
Glenn

Give Safari a whirl. On a Mac it flies.

[Rogue]

I've run FF for years, only problem I've ever had was it didn't used to work on some web sites.

[Gna]

Originally Posted by Rogue

I've run FF for years, only problem I've ever had was it didn't used to work on some web sites.

Those were, and are, MSIE compliant websites which violate W3C protocols.

You can check that using The W3C Markup Validation Service.

[Dave R.]

In following the directions below, once I hit return after typing about:config, I do not see anything about a filter field. I do see a column with preference name, status, type and value and that's it. BTW, thanks for the instructions even though I apparently am not following them correctly. What is it I am doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by ~Emily~

They all have problems at one time or another but I still like FF, mainly because of the add-ons and extensions. Yes, being aware of computer hardware and software configurations may help but some tweaks may also help a bit.

Firefox-Tweaks:
- In the address bar, type “about:config” and hit return. Next, in the filter field, type “network.http” and change the following settings
(double-click on them to change them):
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once, if you see a reduction in performance, reduce it to 20, etc.
Finally, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This new value is the amount of time the browser waits (0) before it responds to the information that it receives.

[highbarger]

Originally Posted by Dave R.

In following the directions below, once I hit return after typing about:config, I do not see anything about a filter field. I do see a column with preference name, status, type and value and that's it.

It should be between the address bar and the column headers, but if it's not there, you can just scroll down to find those lines individually and change those values.

[~Emily~]

Originally Posted by Dave R.

In following the directions below, once I hit return after typing about:config, I do not see anything about a filter field. I do see a column with preference name, status, type and value and that's it.

The filter field is just above the columns (preference name, status, etc.) What version of FF do you have?

[wingspar]

Originally Posted by Dave R.

Ok, that sounds good, but I admittedly don't know how to do as you suggest. Shows my lack of computer skills, but there may be others besides myself watching this that would like to understand better. Would you or someone else mind giving step by step instructions? Thanks

I can see how you can miss the filter field. Just above the “Preference Name” column, you will see the word “Filter” and a long box after that. That is the “Filter Field”, but I would try my suggestions in the following paragraphs first.

Did you figure out how to clean out your temp files and cache? If not, in Firefox, click on Tools > Options > then click on the Privacy Tab. Go down to the line where it says “Clear history when Firefox closes”. To the right of that, you will see a “Settings” button. Click on that, and set the preferences as you desire. Then reboot FF to see if that helped a little.

After that, open Windows Explorer, and navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files and delete everything in there, including Cookies. Once you do these things, you should notice an increase in speed.

[Dave R.]

Update!!
I tried SpeedyFox - Boost Firefox in One Click! | CRYSTALIDEA Software and FF now loads in a few seconds rather than 1+ minute. Time will tell if it locks up anymore, but so far, this was a very pleasant surprise. I hope this helps someone else having similar issues as I have been dealing with.

[PrestonSmith]

Speed of loading may be affected by the security software. FF used to start immediately under MS OneCare, when I switched to AVG it started taking nearly a minute.

[felix.reichardt]

from the website:

How often should I run SpeedyFox?

Depending on your browsing activity we recommend optimizing your profile once in 1-2 weeks.

The optimization process can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour depending on how large your databases are. The whole optimization process is safe as it does not effect your history, bookmarks, passwords, etc.

Question to Dave: How long did the optimization actually take on your PC?

[Dave R.]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

from the website:

How often should I run SpeedyFox?

Question to Dave: How long did the optimization actually take on your PC?

It was not anywhere near as long as they say is possible. I didn't time it, but it was no more than a few minutes.

[TheRoaddog]

I have to punch th' "Enter" button repeatedly 'cause FF is so DUMB. Other that that, it's only fair. )
RD

[Zardoz17]

If I had a Mac, it would be Safari, for sure. That being said, Opera hasn't let
me down and the 10.1 version so far, is very fast. Firefox seems too fiddly
to me, I don't feel like getting out hammer and nails to build the browser I
want.