Tweak up your Firefox browser, those of you over there who actually use that particular browser that is. I personally started using it 99% of the time, and only use Internet Explorer if a website demands it, and refuses to accept firefox, like for example when I play MSN 8 & 9 ball, I have to use I.E. which runs like porridge, but firefox is fast, but can be made even faster, as I found out last week, when I followed the instructions on the extreme tips website, and belive me, it really works, the pages load-up like artificial lightning, astonishingly fast, and the refresh function is now like greased lightning, whereas before it was a tad on the slowish side, but still much faster than I.E 6.
Here are the instructions, and I assure you, this is easier to do than you might think, so if you do use Firefox to browse, and want more browsing speed, please try it.
************************************************ Extreme Tips: Speed Up FireFox By: Andy Walker
Edit some critical settings to super charge the Firefox web browser's performance.
To jump start the speed of Firefox ability to load pages faster, check out these settings edits.
First, type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. You'll see a bunch of settings. Scroll down and look for the following entries:
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.
Next, alter the entries as follows:
Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true" by right clicking on it and choosing "Toggle". Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true" Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 80. This means it will make 80 requests at once.
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 receives.
If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages much faster now!
Thanks to viewer Bill Alkis for this tip. ************************************************
You can go & see the website first if you really want to, but you needn't, as this tweak is so easy to do (or undo, if need be).
Hey dudes & dude-esses, or if you prefer 'Chicos y Chicas'...here is an update on the use of the Firefox browser.
I have just found, downloaded and installed the latest FREE version of Firefox, from version 1.0.7 to the mighty 1.5 and want to encourage all of you who already use it to do this asap, as it is amazing.
It is clearly faster, more stable, more secure, less bugs and/or problems, and simply knocks the socks off of microsofts Internet Explorer 5 or 6, and it makes multimadrid run like a dream. !!Yikes!! what am I saying, multimadrid already runs like a dream, so I had better say that it assists multimadrid in running like a dream, even more than ever, I mean I have been opening & closing various post's, threads etc, and I can see now how much difference there is in the way the web pages are loading-up, and there is no doubt at all that this version of Firefox 1.5 is making life easier when you are in a hurry to locate something, or just like the ease with which it opens things up on mm, without having to sit there and use an egg timer, like it was in the old days (sorry Jer). But now mm is much more functional, less buggy, faster to display things, and with the assistance of this new browser version 1.5, it really is flying, so take my advice and install it today and you will see what I mean.
Yeah I know what you mean about the text on the side there, in fact I was even looking at that just yesterday afternoon, and thinking of how I might shorten it, but sadly I don't see anyway that it can be done, and so I might just have to get rid of it all together. But as it is an extremely deeply meaningful & important philosophical statement in my life, and I like to introduce other people to the concept (and reality) of Serendipity, it would be hard for me to let it go, but at least I've got the other love of my life down there in my signature, the statement that for me says it all, about my beloved flamenco music, so in favor of that I will, (until a solution to the problem is found) I will remove the Serendipity thing.
By the way, (and back on topic) if anybody wants to investigate the use of another language for Firefox, and/or another operating system/platform, here is a link to the web page where you can get other languages & operating systems, like for example if you want firfox in Spanish, Catalan, Asturianu, Portuges, french, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) & Japanese, etc, it's all in there, and for Mac users, Linux, etc.
Ok, I followed your advice and upgraded and tweaked and so far it is working great! With one small exception. I have lost the scrolling bar that normally appears at the far right side. I cannot figure out how to get it back-have looked through tools and options. I know you can use the arrows to tab down, but I am used to that bar at the side and miss it. Any idea how to get it back? Thanks!
azucar!
Posts: 321 | Location: NYC to Paris to Madrid!!!!! | Registered: 21 August 2003
it's in the firefox browser on every site, including yours-it's how you normally move up or down throughout the page-mine is gone now for your site and every other site I visit with the new firefox browser. The only way I can navigate in a page is with the up and down arrows on the keyboard.
azucar!
Posts: 321 | Location: NYC to Paris to Madrid!!!!! | Registered: 21 August 2003
very odd! try re-downloading and installing firefox.
i have never heard of the scroll bar disappearing. may be a glitch as i am not aware of any setting that allows one to turn the main scroll bar off and on
in the meantime, if you use an external mouse and it has a wheel, use it to scroll up and down pages.
Santi, you seem to be the browser pro, any ideas why her scroll bar went away?
Okay, I've done some checking, and have determined that it cannot be the programme that has cause the scroll-bar to be omitted, it just cannot happen like that, therefore it must be some other kind of hiccup in the graphical user interface of your operating system, which I have heard about, but not experienced.
Seeing as there is no other logical rhyme or reason that I can find for that happening, I can only do as Jer has done, and advise you to re-download Firefox 1.5, then reinstall again, but also, first check all your graphical settings in windows, **Temporarily** try using a different windows appearance/Theme/scheme/style, like windows classic style, or XP style (if you have XP) or any other style and/or scheme, then Re-boot your PC, (sometimes, as in often, this needs to be done twice, for complex reasons, that take too much explaining, even by a tech wizard, which I'm not, but I do know from someone that this is a common practice with them, to log out of windows properly and re-boot twice over, in order to clear various problems of this nature, as Windows itself can and does use devices to resolve the failure of things to load up properly, such as many graphical items which can often go missing, and this makes sense if you think about, seeing as Windows is basically a "GUI" a Graphical User Interface, and if things don't get loaded properly, it tries to resolve it, but sometimes, because of data corruption, on the hard drive, fragmentation of files, and/or virus activity, you can lose certain things that even Windows can't put right, which basically means defragmenting the hard drive thoroughly, reinstalling programme, twice if necessary, then doing like the tech’s do and re-booting twice, so that all the various bits & pieces of the programme get restored.
I have heard about certain macro viruses that can play around with your GUI, and play visual tricks on you, by removing some things, I had this for ages on mine, it kept on changing my VDU monitor/screen resolution and refresh rate, I always keep it on about 75Hz, and the virus got into my graphics card software, and kept on re-setting it back to 60Hz, at which point I get a lot of flicker on the screen, and even now, 4 years later it still plays with me, I use a certain programme to submit data to my firewall provider for analysis, at one moment I get a screen of info, that all fits in at 800 x 600, the next moment I get it at something ridiculous like 1024 X 768, and sometimes worse, but I still cannot find any other viruses, macro or otherwise, so I just put up with it, (for now) but in your case, I think it is more likely to be something less tedious, perhaps just a damaged or corrupted file.
Try the things that I suggested, I know it means another hours or so's work on the PC, but if it does the trick, then we will all know what to do in future, you'll be happy, and I'll be well pleased too. If necessary, go to control panel/add & remove programmes, and un-install Firefox, before reinstalling it, because if there is a serious bug in it, you might just have to do that first in order to get rid of it, but don't forget to LOG OUT of windows, and then restart the computer, as I have found that, that cures all manner of ills, as far as Windows is concerned.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
Posts: 696 | Location: Santander | Registered: 11 August 2003
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