How to Get Faster Load Times (or die trying)
Submitted by Spunk-Monkey on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 12:59am.
This setup works fairly well for me, and might for others interested in faster load times. And there are probably better methods, but this might give you some ideas to build on. And this should be especially useful to dial-up users.
First, install FireFox. It's a browser just like Internet Explorer, but it's written so anyone can add tools and plugins as they like. And you don't have to get rid of IE, it easily imports your bookmarks, and if you like, helps you feel like you’re helping to stick-it to Microsoft.
Once it's installed it's a good idea to use the import wizard to grab your bookmarks, passwords, etc from Internet Explorer.
In order to squeeze the most out of it, install some extensions or add-ons. Most are written by people who just wanted to add a feature somewhere, and they can be anything from managing your downloads to weather indicators to one that makes web pages look like they were written by the Swedish Chef. The more you install, the slower your computer will likely get. So here are the add-ons i use:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
Adblock Plus
Most advertisements, at least those that are banners and animated graphics and such, are automatically ignored. Sometimes it will contact a site to get a list of known advertising management companies, which makes it possible to more provide more accurate blocking. You have the option to disable this feature for specific websites, which I do at places like progressive bloggers. I know that advertisements are important to many bloggers or other sites, so if i can handle it i'll disable it for them, let them get a little more advertising space. Make sure you grab the PLUS version. Adblock without the plus is an older version.
FasterFox
I had listed this as something i had found to be fairly useless but unobtrusive. Now I know better. And as we all know, knowing is half the battle. (Unless of course GIJoe is a fucking lyer...)
Flashblock
THIS is the crowning touch! With this baby installed, all flash based content (be it YouTube videos, animated banners, etc) are not loaded. Instead you get a polite little block of space with a flash logo in the middle. If you want to see it, just click-n-go. But when you refresh the page it is once again a polite frame of nothin'. Joy! You’ll find yourself enjoying Lucille for who she really is rather than the load times.
IE View
This is good to have, since occasionally some pages will not load appropriately. If you find a page that doesn’t work quite right, like the AAR stream, BlueRootsRadio, etc... if it's not behaving quite right in FireFox, click the link and it will launch that same page in IE. It’s the best of both worlds. And you can set it to automatically do this whenever you visit that page.
Talkback
It's just there when you install FireFox. I leave it de-activated. It causes no harm, but it's not really worth turning on unless you find your browser crashing.
If you have any questions, feel free to ping me at spunkmonkey2@gmail.com and i'll either help if i can or share your misery.
Cheers!
Spunk-Monkey
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Mozilla
I use old red mozilla...all this work for that too?
Opera browser
When you use Opera, a right mouse click on a page will allow you to "edit site preferences." I got fed up with many things here and just disabled plug-ins and pictures. Now I can ignore the children screaming for attention in the back seat and just pay mind to the more thoughtful folks who explain themselves without the hysteria.
GrouChew
I can't say about Mozilla
it's been a while since i messed with it. If i had it i'd give it a shot to find out. If you do, please post your findings! Sure couldn't hurt trying. Um, probably.
Hiya Spunk
First, lose "FasterFox". It's a pre-fetch cache hog that wastes bandwidth. You haven't noticed improvement for a reason and it is doing harm (sorta) to the web-i-verse, in other words, Stop destroying the World (wide web)!
Those are great choices otherwise for those of us suffering bandwidth deprivation.
Oh, and yes, Flashblock is the shit.
Also try some of my other favorites
ImgLikeOpera does what it says
Image Assistant
Nuke Anything Enhanced
Read Easily
Remove it Permanently
Operaview
and of course no Fox would be complete without: MR Tech Local Install
Sorry for not putting links, but you know where to find them.
Later Monkey :)
-please post your findings-
Tell me your email address Petaluma person...unless you're all stealthy which is ok too...You're too close for comfort...
(Do not ask me why I'm thinking of a scene from the movie American Gigolo in which Richard Gere is in a morning after shot with Lauren Hutten and he is on the phone with another woman, telling her that she is making him hard and he is embarrased and has to hang up..or some such...)
:)
FasterFox NIXED!
Thanks, i had no idea, and until now i didn't know there was any harm. I'll check out the others you recommend... like any technology there's always just a bit more performance to squeeze out!
Well hello, Petaluma girl, come here often?
For some reason I thought you were much further south, either north of L.A. or in the SLO area. Crazy! Just drop me a line at spunkmonkey2@gmail.com and i'll tag you back with my genuine info.
I never saw American Gigolo, don't know the scene. But although it's not Richard Gere, here's the screen cap of the 'organic dataset' i've been playing with:
http://tinyurl.com/5ddxct
"organic dataset, playing with..." You were right, that does sound awkward... ;-)
Nighty-night!
-k-
Thanks, S-M!
You are a regular Leo Laporte tho' maybe only room for one up there in PoultryTown.
Here's to hoping Brett Gets back on Broadband soon !
He's not only a good guy,he knows he's shit.
Miss ya Bud.. :)
"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."
Spunk-Monkey
I'm waiting on this one, impatiently, I might add.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0b5/releasenotes/
Firefox 3 Beta 5 Release Notes
Released: April 2, 2008
[...]
Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 32 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 12,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.
[Improved in Beta 5!] Firefox 3 Beta 5 includes more than 750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility, providing platform and user interface enhancements, and resulting in the fastest Firefox ever. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.
[...]
----------------------
Code Monkey-Jonathan Coulton
This turned out to be a hit
thanks for posting sm
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett
Just d/l-ed Firefox
I've used it in the past but now looking forward to any speed change in loading time from home..thanks S-M!
Have a geat day...
Now I hope some of you get off my back
and concentrate on my front
(((THANK YOU SPUNK, SORRY I DOUBTED YOU ON FRIDAY)))