FireFox Tweeking: is pipelining a good idea?

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PakRat
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FireFox Tweeking: is pipelining a good idea?

#1 Post by PakRat »

For all of you power browsers out there. I found this information concerning super charging the stand alone FireFox. It works. And in my opinion is much better for the Internet than the other methods of WebAcceleration. Enjoy your Puppy Linux !

Super Charged FireFox :

To boost Firefox, simply do the following after launching your browser.


1. Type "about:config" into the address bar (no spaces) 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 at a time to a Web page. When you enable pipelining, the browser 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 20. (This tells the browser to make 20 requests at once.) (Instead of the defalt of 4)

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 acting on received information.

Okay. That's all it takes. But now let's dig into the controversy that is foaming up discussion boards across the land. The term the hard core use for opening 20 server calls at one time is not pretty, but says it all: server raping. Taking up 20 simultaneous sessions is a major don't, since most servers bomb out at around 100. If five people using this tweak hit a page at the exact same time, they would crash everything, warned many a geek. Definately -- NOT SO -- !

But not so, according to the other camp, who explain that pipelining is not about opening multiple sessions but simply changing how a single session pulls down information. The irony is that most developers gave up on pipelining after broadband became more widespread, and browsers today ship with this default set to "Off" or "False" to protect servers from throwing up bugs during a rapid pipeline burst.

I have to say that I have been using my jacked-up Firefox and have not crashed sites or been denied access because of my browser's action being confused for a flood attack. I have noticed much more bad code, though in third-party ads, mostly. Not in Google ads
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Rhino
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#2 Post by Rhino »

That seems to work well...maybe a bit faster. I'll report any problems if they appear. Thanks!

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Pizzasgood
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#3 Post by Pizzasgood »

I just set mine to 10, because it still speeds it up, but I don't feel as guilty. :) 20 just seems like overkill to me.
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PakRat
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OverKill is my middle name..

#4 Post by PakRat »

Yes I know what you mean , I haven't noticed any difference between 12 to 30 in response time, it just seems to work a bit better on the graphic intensive sights. Like any of the tv channels in the U.S. e.g. try www.krgv.com it's in South Texas .. or www.kwwl.com in N.E. Iowa... really try out the system to it's max..
Thanks , Guys for your input.. Later.. ;-) bd
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John

#5 Post by John »

These tricks may or may not actually be working.
If you check Mozilla's own website, you will find them listed as suggestions.
However, Mozilla also says that enabling pipelining "is unfortunately not well supported by some web servers and proxies."
As for the other trick -- eliminating the delay before the page starts to be painted on your screen -- Mozilla says that "The drawback, especially on slower machines, is that the total time to display the page will be longer."

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PakRat
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#6 Post by PakRat »

Granted, it is not the best fix for brousing, but it works for me and I use it like outlined above ,, as far as I'm concerned it is the better of the other software 'options' for web acceleration out there.. I think the subscription type web accelerators will cause more 'bog' and problems than good. Time will tell.
Enjoy ! :-)


Thanks for your post.. bd
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qa1433
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#7 Post by qa1433 »

Hi all,
Also works with Mozilla 1.8b2 that comes with Puppy 1.0.2.

one word of caution however. Do not add the nglayout.initialpaint.delay into the config file. it causes Mozilla to lock your personal toolbar to where you cannot access any links throught the dropdown if you have more then can be displayed.

Along with the aftermentioned mods it should also be noted that you can add a new preference in order to shorten to zero the delay time, but there's a clean way so to do, namely:

1) Find the file firefox.js (should live in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/defaults/prefs

2) Open with gedit

3) Find the line "pref("browser.turbo.enabled", false) and change the value to "true"

4) Save and restart Firefox. It literally flies!

have fun,
paul 8)

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JontomXire
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#8 Post by JontomXire »

You can set browser.turbo.enabled int he about:config page and so not have to go edit javascript files in your installation.

I recommended these tweaks to a friend and he was well impressed. So was I when I put them in.

There is one website that seems to be running slower these days though :(

lch
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#9 Post by lch »

If you want to know about Pipelining and why it might be a good idea or why it won't then have a look at the FAQ at Mozilla. Apparently not even the moderators know the difference between simultaneous/persistent connections, otherwise they wouldn't have locked the other thread that's similar to this one here.

I would enable Pipelining, but not overdo it with the request size, because it might reduce the gain again if you overdo it. The default value of 4 seems to be about right, as all that you want is to use not so many packets and utilitze the maximum segment size to the fullest, anyway. There are some other Firefox Tuning tips over at the Mozilla-centered forums, too.

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Flash
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#10 Post by Flash »

Initially I thought it would be rude to other people to hog the server, but then I thought, assuming everyone downloads the same amount from the server as if there were no pipelining, it wouldn't make any difference because the people doing the pipelining get off the server that much sooner.

On the other hand, that assumption is questionable. The faster you can download stuff, the more stuff you tend to download. So pipelining might well encourage hogging. In fact, I suggest that it be called hogging instead of pipelining.
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lch
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#11 Post by lch »

I still think that you are confusing this with the number of simultaneous connections. Of course, it isn't good to use too many of those because then you get the famous slashdot effect alot earlier. But Pipelining is just telling the server what you want to have from it in advance (check the FAQ) to discourage sending packets that carry almost no information at all. You would request the same things anyway, just one after another, and all you do is use the packets that get send anyway (you don't generate more of them this way, only less) in a better way, so it seems good to me.

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