Firefox Pipelining - Speed Up Your Browsing!

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Firefox can be significantly accelerated by adjusting specific settings in the browser's configuration. By entering "about:config" and changing "network.http.pipelining" and "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true," along with setting "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 30, users can enable the browser to handle multiple requests simultaneously, enhancing speed. However, this tweak can lead to issues with streaming media, causing echoes due to repeated downloads. Some users report no noticeable difference in speed, particularly those with high-speed connections, while others find it beneficial for sites with many elements. Concerns about server connection limits and potential bans from smaller sites were raised, but it was clarified that pipelining does not increase the number of connections; it optimizes request handling over a single connection. Overall, the benefits of pipelining are more pronounced on slower, high-latency connections.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20453
  • Firefox flies into over drive
    Is it a bird... is it a plane..?
    By INQUIRER staff: Thursday 30 December 2004, 22:09

    ASK ANY OF FIREFOX'S avid supporters and they'll tell you it's the fastest browser around, true or not.

    Well, the INQ's stumbled on a little tweak that's easy to do and sends the browser into overdrive.

    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.
[/color]
 
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Wow, that does make firefox really fast.
 
Amazing! Try it!
 
Awesome, Thanks!
 
wow, makes a huge difference. What is the reason for this not being the default setting
 
Ok, I just found the problem pipelining. This is a bug that can be fixed, but when you go to sites that stream media you start to hear echos because it is downloading the media over and over again.
 
dduardo said:
Ok, I just found the problem pipelining. This is a bug that can be fixed, but when you go to sites that stream media you start to hear echos because it is downloading the media over and over again.

hitssquad said:
"network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 30, meaning it will be able to make 30 requests at once.[/color]

Changed "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" value to 25 and was able to view streaming media with no problem.
 
Very cool, not sure why this is not the default, pipelining has been around ever since HTTP 1.1
 
I hate to be the only contrarian here, but what are those config changes supposed to accomplish? I tried it and I didn't notice any change. So I tried switching the settings a few times, on, off, on again, off again; Firefox is real fast either way, and I can't see any difference related to those settings.

Does it help with certain kinds of content?
 
  • #10
zippidy doo daa! thanks hitssquad
 
  • #11
The weird thing is it keeps going back to the default settings.
 
  • #12
by the way, you may get banned from some smaller sites if you use this functionality, as you are in escence using more connections to the server to render objects etc (more pipes so instead of using 3 connections you are using 8 or something like this). So you can Max out server connections and bring sites down if everyone was doing this...

Although in my opinion this should be something that should be controlled from the server, it is not typically...
 
Last edited:
  • #13
Anttech,

That is entirely false. Pipelining does not use more than one connection; it simply queues up more than one request at a time on a single keep-alive connection. This way, you can drop three or four requests onto a server all in one packet, reducing the effect of packet latency. It doesn't stress sites any more than any other method of retrieving pages; it just makes the requesting more efficient. Firefox's default setting is to open no more than two simultaneous connections to anyone server, and pipelining does not change this.

- Warren
 
  • #14
I'll ask again: do I have to be downloading some particular kind of content in order to notice any benefit from pipelining? (Or do I need a slower connection?)

I tried changing the settings as described but didn't see any difference.
 
  • #15
gnome said:
I'll ask again: do I have to be downloading some particular kind of content in order to notice any benefit from pipelining? (Or do I need a slower connection?)

I tried changing the settings as described but didn't see any difference.


I ahven't noticed any particular change either. But i have a T1 campus connection, my guess is you ahve something similar and that the connection is already so fast that the impact is minimal.
 
  • #16
The sites that will benefit most from pipelining are those with lots of individual elements, such as inline graphics, flash animations, frames, and so on. If you already have a low-latency connection, you may not notice much of a difference. If you are on a high-latency connection, like a modem, the difference can be substantial.

- Warren
 

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