Double your browser's speed in just five minutes

Firefox has been outperforming IE in every department for years, and version 3 is speedier than ever. But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations, all for about five minutes work and for the cost of precisely nothing at all. Here's what you need to do.

1. Enable pipelining

Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received, often reducing page download times. To enable it, type about:config in the address bar, double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining so their values are set to true, then double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set this to 8. Keep in mind that some servers don't support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. Set network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining to false again if you have any problems.

2. Render quickly

Large, complex web pages can take a while to download. Firefox doesn't want to keep you waiting, so by default will display what it's received so far every 0.12 seconds (the "content notify interval"). While this helps the browser feel snappy, frequent redraws increase the total page load time, so a longer content notify interval will improve performance. Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) somewhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type content.notify.interval as your preference name, click OK, enter 500000 (that's five hundred thousand, not fifty thousand) and click OK again. Right-click again in the window and select New > Boolean. This time create a value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to True to finish the job.

3. Faster loading

If you haven't moved your mouse or touched the keyboard for 0.75 seconds (the content switch threshold) then Firefox enters a low frequency interrupt mode, which means its interface becomes less responsive but your page loads more quickly. Reducing the content switch threshold can improve performance, then, and it only takes a moment. Type about:config and press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Integer. Type content .switch.threshold, click OK, enter 250000 (a quarter of a second) and click OK to finish.

4. No interruptions

You can take the last step even further by telling Firefox to ignore user interface events altogether until the current page has been downloaded. This is a little drastic as Firefox could remain unresponsive for quite some time, but try this and see how it works for you. Type about:config, press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Boolean. Type content.interrupt.parsing, click OK, set the value to False and click OK.

5. Block Flash

Intrusive Flash animations are everywhere, popping up over the content you actually want to read and slowing down your browsing. Fortunately there's a very easy solution. Install the Flashblock extension (flashblock.mozdev.org) and it'll block all Flash applets from loading, so web pages will display much more quickly. And if you discover some Flash content that isn't entirely useless, just click its placeholder to download and view the applet as normal.

6. Increase the cache size

As you browse the web so Firefox stores site images and scripts in a local memory cache, where they can be speedily retrieved if you revisit the same page. If you have plenty of RAM (2 GB of more), leave Firefox running all the time and regularly return to pages then you can improve performance by increasing this cache size. Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click anywhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type browser.cache.memory.capacity, click OK, enter 65536 and click OK, then restart your browser to get the new, larger cache.

7. Enable TraceMonkey

TraceMonkey is a new Firefox feature that converts slow Javascript into super-speedy x86 code, and so lets it run some functions anything up to 20 times faster than the current version. It's still buggy so isn't available in the regular Firefox download yet, but if you're willing to risk the odd crash or two then there's an easy way to try it out. Install the latest nightly build (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/), launch it, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Type JIT in the filter box, then double-click javascript.options.jit.chrome and javascript.options.jit.content to change their values to true, and that's it - you're running the fastest Firefox Javascript engine ever.

8. Compress data

If you've a slow internet connection then it may feel like you'll never get Firefox to perform properly, but that's not necessarily true. Install toonel.net (toonel.net) and this clever Java applet will re-route your web traffic through its own server, compressing it at the same time, so there's much less to download. And it can even compress JPEGs by allowing you to reduce their quality. This all helps to cut your data transfer, useful if you're on a limited 1 GB-per-month account, and can at best double your browsing performance.

How to increase download speeds in firefox

Firefox is configured by default for dial-up speeds. If you have high speed internet access such as DSL or cable, you can change a few settings in Firefox and increase your download speeds. If you change the number of connections that Firefox uses to download, you will see a dramatic increas in your bandwidth. The larger the file you are downloading, the greater the speed will be, because more connections can be made to the server.

1. Change Firefox connection setting by typing "about:config" in the address bar of Firefox.

2. In the "Filter:" bar, type "persistent"

3. You should now see two preference names with their values:

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxyuser  set  interger  4                                network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server user set interger 2

4. Double click on each of the preference names. A window will pop-up allowing you to  change the values for each. If you have cable or DSL use a number between 20 and 30!.

Click OK.

5.Restart Firefox and you will be able to download more files simultaneously and each file a lot faster.

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DLL or Dynamic Link Library files are used by Windows operating systems and applications installed on them to store functions and codes that can be called on whenever required. There are hundreds of DLL files on a Windows system and several conditions that may result in DLL errors. Some of the common causes of DLL errors are:

• Missing, corrupt, or damaged DLL.
• Overwriting or deletion of one or more DLLs during program install or uninstall.
• Faulty or corrupt applications.
• Malware infections.
• Erroneous or invalid entries in the registry.

To understand DLL errors better, let’s have a look at some common DLL errors and the methods you can use to fix them. 

Msvcr71.dll Error

The Msvcr71.dll file belongs to the Microsoft Visual C Runtime library 7.1 engine that is required by Microsoft C++.NET-based Windows applications, such as Microsoft Windows Office versions 2002 and 2003 and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET versions 2002, 2003 & 2005. These applications require the Msvcr71.dll file to carry out operations such as including the functionality for drop-down menus, toolbar buttons, and scroll bars, and to control mouse operations.

Msvcr71.dll errors usually occur when the DLL file is damaged, deleted, or overwritten due to installation or removal of an application. The file may also get affected if there is a problem with an application that uses it. Additionally, registry problems and virus infections may also generate Msvcr71.dll errors on the system.

When the error occurs, error messages similar to the one displayed below may appear on your desktop.

“The application has failed to start because MSVCR71.dll was not found. Reinstalling this application may fix this problem.”

“Program_File failed because MSVCR71.dll was not found.“

Msvcp71.dll Error

The Msvcp71.Dll is another Microsoft C Runtime library file which is required by several Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications to perform various operations. Errors related to the Msvcp71.dll file may occur if this file is corrupt, damaged or missing from the system due to incorrect program install/uninstall, virus infections, and registry problems. When the Msvcp71.dll error occurs, you may encounter error messages similar to the following:

“This application has failed to start because Msvcp71.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.”

“Msvcp71.dll is a bad windows image. Please check against your installation diskette.”

Shell32.dll Error

The Shell32.dll is a Windows library file that contains the functions required by Windows Shell API. This DLL file helps with operations such as opening files and Web pages on your PC. Most commonly, Shell32.dll errors occur while launching the Internet Explorer Web browser or while creating or accessing a folder in Windows Explorer. These errors usually occur due to problems in the registry.

When a Shell32 error occurs you may receive an error message, similar to the one given below:

“This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.”

Details:

“Program_File caused an invalid page fault in SHELL32.DLL”

The error message will close by prompting:

“There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using will be closed.”

Msoe.dll Error

The Msoe.dll is an essential file required by the Microsoft Outlook Express application. The Msoe.dll error usually occurs due to a missing Address Book (.WAB) file, or due to the existence of two versions of Outlook Express on the PC. When the error occurs, an error message similar to the one given below maybe displayed on your screen.

“Outlook Express could not be started because Msoe.dll could not be loaded"

Most of the time, this error can be resolved by reinstalling the Address Book Windows component or by completely removing Outlook Express from the system and then installing the Outlook Express version you want on your system.

Simple Tips to Prevent and Fix DLL Errors

To fix the msvcr71.dll error and other DLL errors and prevent them from occurring on the system, you can follow some of the tips while working on your PC.

• Be careful while installing and uninstalling applications and do not overwrite or delete shared DLLs that maybe required by other programs on your system.
• Avoid installing unsolicited, freeware applications that are likely to contain malicious and harmful codes.
• Keep your operating system, software programs, and device drivers up-to-date with the latest service packs, patches, and security releases.
• Perform regular registry scan and repair with the help of a reliable and efficient registry cleaner tool to ensure that registry problems do not cause errors on the system.
• Keep your antivirus and antispyware tools updated with the latest virus definition and schedule periodic full system scans to ensure that your system stays free from malicious information.

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