:icone14: One of the most effective way to get Firefox fully rendered for a multimedia
experience without the need to chase down plugins is to install a full version
of Quicktime Pro. Once that is in place, you will be blissfully seeing
multimedia content coming down without any further screen prompts:)
(Assuming that you own QuickTime Pro from Apple Computers)
Disclaimer: This is not, and is not intended to be, a Firefox vs. Opera thread. The following are simply some basic guidelines for increasing Firefox performance, and is not meant to be a comparison of any kind! ;)
Although Opera is indeed the fastest browser available. It is fast - there's no denying that - but there are ways to make Firefox render pages every bit as quickly, with just a few easy "tweaks." I had thought these adjustments were pretty well-known, but it's beginning to seem as though they may not be. So I thought it was worthwhile to bring these "hidden settings" more into the light.
Go ahead and print out this post so you can read it conveniently and follow the steps with ease:)
To get started, type about:config in your firefox address bar. The settings you're looking for are:
1.) network.http.pipelining
2.) network.http.pipelining.firstrequest
3.) network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
4.) network.http.proxy.pipelining
5.) nglayout.ititialpaint.delay
Set parameters in #1, #2, and #4 to true.
Set the string value for #3 to a high number 32 .
Set the string value in #5 to 0.
6.) network.http.sendRefererheader
Double-click it and set the value to 0 .
This disables sending the referer header, and seems to further increase the browser's speed.
(Those websites which love to study and monitor the type of browser you use or where or what site you are clicking from will be woefully disappointed!)
If your Firefox does not have the entry mentioned, you can create and add it to your configuration.
Right Click anywhere in the same browser window where you are seeing all the current parameters.
1. Click on NEW
2. Select STRING
3. Copy the missing preference name (for example - network.http.sendRefererheader i.e the missing ones of the 6 I had indicated above)
4. Paste the preference name ( into the blank field in the pop-up dialog box. )
5. Click on Ok
6. Another popup dialog box appears asking for the string value. Using the value detailed in this note, Type in the string value and
7. Click on the OK button.
When you have done all these HOTRODDING tweaks,
Exit/Close the browser window and any tabbed sessions/windows.
Restart the Firefox browser to enjoy its new found speed!
Enabling the pipelining features allows the browser to make multiple requests to the server at the same time. The "maxrequests" is the maximum number of requests it will send at once. I've heard that 8 is the most it will send at once, but setting it higher won't hurt, just in case. The initialpaint.delay is the length of time (in milliseconds) after the server response before the browser begins to paint the page.
Adjusting those settings will help pages render much faster in firefox. In fact, my teams' observations in the various global client sites which had deployed Firefox, we have seen when Firefox was tweaked as shown above - FireFox will render faster than Opera (and yes, I realize that others may experience different results).
So now, my teams and I have both Opera and Firefox blazing through any of my web usage sessions! IE Browser is history (at least at our clients and on my various teams scattered across the globe)!
:icone14:
