Downloaded the 'Mozilla Firefox' browser.
My yellow spinning avatar is suddenly super speeded!
In internet explorer it was always quite slow and ponderous.
I didn't feel it was slow and ponderous of course, it's all relative :)
What is this telling us technically?
May have to change avatar. Makes me dizzy spinning that quickly :hihi:

It's telling us that for 'some' people, Firefox is faster than IE :wink:

Hi Vidster - Some people :confused:

probably because IE's image renderer is slow, my image is the same speed in Firefox as it is in my Gif creating software...

Just toggled between I.E and FF. we all have faster avatars.
(was just checking):suspect:

Originally posted by xafier
probably because IE's image renderer is slow, my image is the same speed in Firefox as it is in my Gif creating software...
Just done a search on 'google images' to test the speed. The pages load fast
Best just call me a FF convert then:)
Can anyone recommend any cool 'extensions?'

Originally posted by Draggletail

Can anyone recommend any cool 'extensions?'
You've seen the light my friend! Now it's time to reap the rewards :smile:
First go to This (http://www.xthost.info/vidster9/HTML/tips&tricks.htm) page to get my tips on making Firefox fly :wink:
Next your going to need a decent theme. I'm using one called 'SaferFox Expanded (https://addons.mozilla.org/themes/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=Popular&numpg=10&id=414). You can get loads from Here (https://addons.mozilla.org/themes/showlist.php?application=firefox&category=Popular).
Then your going to need some decent extensions. I'm currently using Gmail notifier (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=173&application=mozilla), Tab Mix (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=625) (a must for me I need more control over my tabs). The last one i'm using is called Spellbound (http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/). It's a spell checker and i probably use this one the most.
All the best extensions can be found Here (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/?application=mozilla).
Have fun, but remember....The more you install, the slower it gets :wink:

Originally posted by vidster
[B]You've seen the light my friend! Now it's time to reap the rewards :smile:

Vidster, thanks for the links. I will be exploring these over the next few days :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Draggletail
Best just call me a FF convert then:)

You will not regret the decision:thumbsup:



Originally posted by Draggletail
Can anyone recommend any cool 'extensions?'

Hmmmm.

Don't know about "cool" but here's a list of the extensions I use most (many are functional in the status bar)



******* - Blocks Adverts on web pages (and other stuff too - with tweaking)
TabBrowser Preferences - Easy customisation of tabbed browsing
IE View - Cause some sites are crap & require IE
ScrapBook - Saves website locally for easy review
Google PageRank Status - Displays the currrent sites Google PageRank
ShowIP - Shows the IP of the site being viewed
View Rendered Source - Displays colour coded & styled source code of the current page
HTLM Validator - HTLM validation of current page
FormFox - Tells you wherer a form is to be posted to
DownloadWith - Allows downloading with almost any download accelerator
About Site - Sites that link to the current site
UserAgent Switcher - Allows switching of the information the browser sends to the web site
Wayback - Displays archived copies of the current web site
WhoIs - Display WhoIs information about thte currently viewed domain
StreetMap - Simple street map search (UK)
Image ToolBar - Easy access to common image functions (save image etc.)


All do exactly what the authors say they'll do.

The only extension I'd currently advise against installing, is the NoScript extension - which would be excellent (allows full control of which scripts can run and where from etc.) if it didn't bork many FF installs.


Finally....

Turn on the pop up stopper, and Java off (Tools -> Options -> Web Features);).

Thanks sccsux, why 'java off' (I want to know why before I do it.....)
:thumbsup:

Vidster - altering 'about:config' to make FF faster - will it eat up more bandwidth? I'm capped at 1GB with force9 (flexibally though - an extra 1GB costs about an extra quid, I think)

Originally posted by Draggletail
Thanks sccsux, why 'java off' (I want to know why before I do it.....)

Because the NoScript extension is a little "unstable":D.



Seriously.... 'cause Java (not javascripts so much) has the ability to interact with the OS (especially the MS VM).

If you really need Java, get a version from Sun.



BTW. You can turn it back on quite easily once you've turned it off, so there'll be no damage:thumbsup:.

Originally posted by Draggletail


Vidster - altering 'about:config' to make FF faster - will it eat up more bandwidth? I'm capped at 1GB with force9 (flexibally though - an extra 1GB costs about an extra quid, I think)

As far as i know Draggletail, it won't increase your bandwidth by much. The tips i have left do things like 'start rendering a page as soon as Firefox finds it' (I think IE has a slight delay before starting the rendering), also, Firefox will send more requests for a page, speeding up the browsing again (don't set it too high or some sites will stop you accesing their page)
All of the tips are fully reversible though. If you'd like it even faster still, i have some really cool settings to put on my website. They are harder to perform though. You have to create new folders in Firefox etc...

Thanks Vidster, sccsux - I'll start playing :)

Originally posted by Draggletail
Thanks Vidster, sccsux - I'll start playing :)

You're quite welcome, have fun;).

hm faster firefox eh?

most people say one of the worst bits about firefox is, its slower than IE

strange turnabout :)

Originally posted by vidster
It's telling us that for 'some' people, Firefox is faster than IE :wink:

Or that Firefox has a problem displaying animated GIF files properly. :o

Originally posted by t020
Or that Firefox has a problem displaying animated GIF files properly. :o

Does it? New one on me :?
I can honestly say that i've never had a problem viewing anything while using Firefox (not including Microsoft sites and secure bank sites). There is always a first time for everything though :wink:

Your animated GIF is working fine on this Firefox browser t020 :)

Your animated GIF is working fine on this Firefox browser t020

It just looks cheap. :D

Originally posted by Draggletail
Your animated GIF is working fine on this Firefox browser t020 :)
And it has to be said (having just compared using the two browsers) that the animation works faster on FF :)

Originally posted by Ant
It just looks cheap. :D


:rant: Hey!

That's the first animated GIF I've ever made! It was better until I realised it was restricted to a puny 7kb.

Originally posted by Draggletail
And it has to be said (having just compared using the two browsers) that the animation works faster on FF :)

But SHOULD it? It should stay on each frame for 0.15 seconds. Get timing!!

That's the first animated GIF I've ever made! It was better until I realised it was restricted to a puny 7kb.

Then I apologise.

...but it does look like it was designed for a Sinclair Spectrum. ; )

Originally posted by t020
But SHOULD it? It should stay on each frame for 0.15 seconds. Get timing!!
Well mine needed a lot of editing to get it down to the puny amount allowed on the forum (frames taken out/remaining frames speeding up/slight colour changes) and it plays back exactly as it should :wink:

Originally posted by melthebell
hm faster firefox eh?

most people say one of the worst bits about firefox is, its slower than IE

strange turnabout :)

As far as I remember IE starts drawing the page earlier than firefox, meaning you get to see something sooner, but because IE doesn't have as much information when it starts then it has to redraw the screen more often meaning that it takes longer to finish and get it all correct. There is a setting on firefox to reduce the time it waits before it does its first render of the page but then firefox suffers the same problem.

Also IE breaks the TCP/IP standard by assuming a session is already open. The TCP/IP protocol should do
1) request connection
2) recieve connection open confirmation
3) send data
4) get response.

But when IE requests a page it starts at step 3 not step 1. This is only ok if you have previously opened a connection as a "KeepAlive" connection. Otherwise the web server will complain that there is no connection. Then IE has to go back to do step 1. Unless it's connecting to Microsoft IIS which allows browsers to start at step 3.

The upshot is that IE talking to IIS is quicker than anything else talking to IIS on the first connection, but everything else is quicker talking to other webservers than IE on the first connection.

So there's some points about speed differences between IE and Firefox, and that's without getting in to page rendering engine efficiency....

Originally posted by richard
The upshot is that IE talking to IIS is quicker than anything else talking to IIS on the first connection, but everything else is quicker talking to other webservers than IE on the first connection.


So, bearing in mind that most of the servers out there are not running MS software, Firefox will render pages faster than IE;).