15 replies to this topic

[Davis]

I know a lot of people here use FireFox (hell, the NIC is what convinced me to use firefox) and I found this awesome tweak.

I bet the guys using it for a while have probably already seen this, but I found it amazing how much faster my browser now works.

If you guys use Firefox or mozilla for your internet browser then you can tweak it to go faster by following the directions.

1. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit
return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web
page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will
make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number
like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer.
Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to
"0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before
it acts on information it recieves.
Now shut down your browser.. reopen.. You shouldnt notice much of a diffrence right awey.. But get browsing some of your usual sites and you should notice alot of a faster connection to the site! For me it speeded me up about 5x faster then normal for connectiing to sites.....

Now if you don't have Mozilla Firefox, you should get it. Its a great way to brows the web! It stops pop ups, has many functions, and downloads twice the speed anything would usually download! ITS GREAT, PLUS with this tweak websites can load much faster and files will download EVEN FASTER!!!

www.getfirefox.com

Enjoy!

DaViS

Edited by Davis, 27 July 2005 - 08:37 PM.

[JSkater]

I did it all, and now all I have say is:

Whoa.

[MattPaintballer]

I did this a couple months ago. It really helps with space/bandwidth-whoring ad-infested sites (read MySpace).

Firefox is just too awesome. I don't think I could live without tabbed browsing. And my computer would be dead by now if it weren't for Firefox's awesome security.

[Black Wrath]

Thank you for that! I did it an hour ago, and damn does it work.

Thanks again.

[Crankymonky]

Guys, bad idea. When you change / enable pipelines the browser makes multiple requests for the infromation. Sure things load fast, but bandwidth is eaten up like mad. Also, some sites will ban your IP if it requests so many times at a time

So, don't eat up your favorite sites bandwith (I am seeing what works better with or without a d) and resort to slightly slower speeds. Now, we don't want cxqw to have to pay more for bandwith now, do we?

Crank

Now, I hope no one is using the old version of greasemonkey! (Matt's security comment made me say that)

Edited by crankymonky, 28 July 2005 - 07:02 AM.

[Talio]

It's really not all that bad, but yes, in a way Cranks is right. However, I serious doubt you will be banned. It's something to consider, but I don't think it's a huge issue. I've not done it mainly because I've found other ways to speed things up. If anyone is running a linux (primarily FC2 or 4) box, there are tons of things you can do to speed up browsing. I'd love to tell you how to do it in windoze, but as of now I don't believe you can alter the kernal configuration files. I may be wrong, I know nothing about MCSE.

Long and short of it, you want to speed things up, drop the borg and get a real OS.

Talio.

[cxwq]

With all due respect to Cranks, and I appreciate him looking out for the webmaster, this shouldn't cause problems as long as you use reasonable settings. I would suggest setting the network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 10 or 15 to avoid causing problems with older web server software.

Pipelining has been supported since HTTP 1.1 and is implemented properly in most modern web servers. Without pipelining, your browser requests files in a linear fashion, waiting for a response before requesting the next one. If you are on a high latency (ping time) connection and viewing a site with many small images, this is especially problematic. With pipelining, your browser still only opens one or two connections to the server, but it batches requests so they can all begin downloading more or less simultaneously. The overall bandwidth usage is identical, but users on high latency connections receive smaller files much faster.

Where you run into problems is with older versions (eg. Apache 1.2.1b) of server software that don't handle the batched requests nicely and cause either memory or CPU issues on the server. In general, most web sites shouldn't have trouble handling your pipelined requests as long as you keep it down to something reasonable. I've seen suggestions on various web sites for setting your maxrequests over 50 which is a Bad Idea.

Good tip, happy browsing.

[Crankymonky]

Thanks for clearing that up, but couldn't you still get the "slashdot" effect a lot faster with pipelining enabled?

Crank'

[Talio]

That's actually pretty funny. I'm absolutely certain that one day we will get to slashdot, it's inevitable. Nerf is geeky so it's a perfect candidate. I can't imagine the boom in traffic and new members we would have, but it would actually be pretty cool.

Talio.

[cxwq]

Thanks for clearing that up, but couldn't you still get the "slashdot" effect a lot faster with pipelining enabled?

Crank'

For NerfHaven, no. We're on a relatively current version of Apache so it handles pipelined requests just as happily as serial requests. It doesn't actually spawn more processes or take up more memory so life is good. Think of it this way:

Before pipelining:

User A requests file 1.
User B requests file 1.
User C requests file 1.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.
User A requests file 2.
User B requests file 2.
User C requests file 2.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.

After pipelining:

User A requests file 1.
User A requests file 2.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.
User B requests file 1.
User B requests file 2.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.
User C requests file 1.
User C requests file 2.
NH acknowledges request.
NH acknowledges request.

Notice that the exact same amount of work is being done, just in a different order. Your perception is that you get served faster so the server must be doing more work. The server's perception is that you stop bugging it sooner so it can focus on the other people requesting files. Either way, each user requires the exact same files be transfered, with pipelining they're just asking for them all in advance rather than one at a time. In the context of 30+ people hitting the site at a time it doesn't make a bit of difference to the server.


Now, on older server software it's a different story all together. The reason I suggested something like 10 or 15 for the max setting is to keep firefox users from bringing older Apache/IIS versions to their knees quite so badly because they're not set up to handle requests in this way. On the other hand, it might be a good incentive for them to upgrade their software.

[Crankymonky]

SScentral got a link on hackaday, and I don't think DOOM actually submitted. It is inevitable. And a lazertag site also got a mod on hackaday (homemade lazertag gun)

Crank'

Ah, cx, makes more sense now.

Edited by crankymonky, 29 July 2005 - 10:45 AM.

[cxwq]

SScentral got a link on hackaday, and I don't think DOOM actually submitted. It is inevitable. And a lazertag site also got a mod on hackaday (homemade lazertag gun)

Crank'

Ah, cx, makes more sense now.

We got linked on hackaday on April 4th to this thread.

We get so much traffic daily via Google (because the forums are full-text indexed) that it didn't really make a blip on my stats. Slashdot would be a different story I'm sure.

[Talio]

Soaker and lazer tag got some airtime on Slashdot a while back in the game section. Seems GamerDad did an article about them.

Still, it's all a matter of time. Someday I garantee it will happen, and I hope to god the server doesn't make a gagging sound.

Talio.

[cxwq]

Knew I'd find it sooner or later... NO got Slashdotted back in the day.

[Crankymonky]

Cx,

The nerf article has inspired me. (Score:5)
by Shoeboy (16224) on Thursday November 30, @03:06PM (#590731)
(http://vladsucks.com/)
No, it hasn't inspired me to make "nerf on or fuck off" my signature,

Any Comments?

That face takes the place of <g>

Crank'

Edited by crankymonky, 29 July 2005 - 11:21 AM.

[The Anarchy Department]

Oooooooh!
Aaaaaaah!

I wonder in the infinite glory and majesty of Firefox.

~TAD