It is very slow to navigate this forum on IE7. I am now using Firefox 2.0 with Adblock Plus to avoid all the ads and it works like a champ. It does not take longer than 2 seconds to load a thread while it used to take at least 10 using IE7.

EDIT: For extra speed, open FireFox config by typing about:config in the address bar, set the following params and restart firefox.

network.http.max-connections = 96
network.http.max-connections-per-server = 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy = 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server = 8
network.http.pipelining = true
network.http.proxy.pipelining = true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests = 8
nglayout.initialpaint.delay = 0

Then use the following patch to set the max amount of half-open connections to 90: http://www.lvllord.de/?url=tools

Some virus scanners say this is a virus, but it is not. It will patch TCPIP.sys to remove a ridiculously low limit of 10 half-open TCP/IP connections Microsoft has put into XP SP2. This is a must-have for peer-to-peer downloading. More info here: http://phex.org/mambo/content/view/49/33/

Agreed. I've also noticed that some posts are slower to load than others... Maybe I'll have to try running Firefox instead of IE, as you have.

I think adblock plus made the difference, not the browser itself.

Firfox is the best browser out there right now I think personally. I have been using it for over a year now.

Don't use the adblock but I am using Firefox. I avoid IE7 like the plague. We even use Firefox at my office (city government). Another thing that I use that is great is AVG 7.5 anti virus software. It's free and you can google AVG and download it.

HOLY CRAP!!! I just put Adblock Plus as an addon through FireFox. Wow the pages load 100x's faster!

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm going to look into the AVG 7.5 Anti Virus software too.

Just added adblock myself. It loaded so fast that I felt I was caught in a time warp:D

ORIGINAL: S70driver
I'm going to look into the AVG 7.5 Anti Virus software too.


Nod32 is my choice right now. It is very fast and effective. Avira Antivir is also very good.

ORIGINAL: axelm

ORIGINAL: S70driver
I'm going to look into the AVG 7.5 Anti Virus software too.


Nod32 is my choice right now. It is very fast and effective. Avira Antivir is also very good.



Axel, are you sure it's not "Avada Kedavra"?

IE7 is an absolutefiasco. It shuts down in the middle of surfing and the unnecessary anti-phising filter thing was the dumbest thing they ever added on[8D]. So far, I'm all right with IE6 (rolled back, got rid of IE7). I also have FF as a backup browser; just a personal preference and I got used to with IE6 so much that I'm reluctant to change.


JPN

JPN,

I simply can´t use IE6 because it does not support tabs. To read this forum I go to the main 850 age, I press CTRL and click on all the unread threads. I open 10-20 browser tabs and they all sit very tidily on the top of the screen. Imagine that with IE6, I would have 20 windows on my task bar, no way.

The Firefox extension system is fantastic. There are several hundred available extensions for free. I use the internal download accelerator and free ad blocker and they work fine. IE7 is always targeted by hackers/spammers/trojans. Windows is such a waste of time that I considering moving to Linux permanently. I have been using Fedora for the last three years with great results. Maybe it is mature now for desktop use.

I forgot to add that most people get rid of Firefox because it takes longer to load than IE7 which is preloaded when you boot the OS. There is a small application called Firefox Preloader that will do just that and Firefox windows will open in half a second or maybe less.

Hi Axel,

Thanks for the useful info. Maybe it's time that I give it a try on FF. I once had a situation where IE did not allow me to enter a site, and I fiddled with all settings to no avail. Then I tried FF and I was able to enter the site. After that, for whatever the reason, I was also able to enter the site with IE. I have no clue what the logic was.

Anyway, Windows & IE are definitely virus & cracker magnets. "Windows Update" should be renamed as "Windows Screw-Up Patch Service"[8D].

Thanks again,


JPN

ORIGINAL: JPN
Anyway, Windows & IE are definitely virus & cracker magnets. "Windows Update" should be renamed as "Windows Screw-Up Patch Service"[8D].


I agree totally. My father-in-law's PC was killed by a Windows update. I got tired of his complaints regarding performance since his PC was a hand-me-down, so I formatted the hard drive and installed Xubuntu Linux. No more complaints, no more viruses, no more spyware.

A friend at the office asked me why I didn't install Windows 98 on the old PC. Yeah, right.

+1 for FF 2.0 with adblock Plus, changed over from IE7 after reading about it here two days ago. It's like day and night with this forum loading very fast now, all the surfing's much quicker. Thanks for passing on the info.

Even without Adblocker Plus FireFox loads this forum quickly. But with Adblocker Plus it loads it just that much quicker.

I have added some more tips to the first post on this thread. They call it Firefox on steroids.

ORIGINAL: axelm

I have added some more tips to the first post on this thread. They call it Firefox on steroids.


And if we do this? And for some reason it messes up how to we go back to the way it was before?

I installed Firefox with adblock, but now I can not respond to any threads. They do load somewhat faster, but I must have blocked something that I should not have. I went and individually right-clicked on the ads and said adbock on them. I could not quite fiigure out which one to un-adblock or exactly how to use the "*" wildcard. It took me about two hours just to get it loaded with dialup, so I kind of had enough at that point.

JimKW,
Well, dialup does have that effect on people. :-)

S70driver,
You can reset the default FireFox config by going to about:config and right click on the parameter you want to reset. A context menu will appear and the reset option is there.

Well I mess with it a little more last night, but still can not get to where I can respond to threads. The box is greyed out and I can not log out either. I removed everyone of my adblocks and that did not help. Any ideas?

My box is greyed out too, but I can still respond to threads by just typing there.

Jim, what if you disable adblock completely? Tools->Adblock Plus ->Options -> Unmark Adblock Enabled.

I'll give it a try when I get home tonight. thanks.

Yes that worked, but it took longer to load that IE did. I'm going to try and log out now, which would not work before, and then log back in and enable adblock again just to see what happens.

Yes it is working and it's much faster than IE, and I have the adblock working. Would not let me log out though. Thank you very much axelm. You might see me on a little more often at home now.

No problem, my pleasure.

ORIGINAL: JimKW

Yes that worked, but it took longer to load that IE did. I'm going to try and log out now, which would not work before, and then log back in and enable adblock again just to see what happens.


Longer loading time can be lessened by upgrading the RAM (The difference was noticeable when I went from 256MB to 512MB, but not much change from 512MB to 1GB. I assumed that the outdated, slow 1.6GHz Pentium-4 could not handle the situation[8D]).

RAM specs have changed dramatically in the last few years, and finding the right RAM could be a challenge (like my PC2100 DDR SDRAM, Bus-Speed 266MHz, 200-PIN SODIMM whatever[8D]). I wanted to get them before they went extinct.


JPN

I'm actually running a farily new system that has 512M of RAM. Once I blocked the ads things got much faster. The biggest gain I see is when I go BACK and the screen comes right up whereas with IE it would take a long time to populate the screen even going back.

ORIGINAL: JPN
Longer loading time can be lessened by upgrading the RAM (The difference was noticeable when I went from 256MB to 512MB, but not much change from 512MB to 1GB. I assumed that the outdated, slow 1.6GHz Pentium-4 could not handle the situation[8D]).


JPN, a 1.6 P4 with 1 gb is more than enough to run a browser properly. Five years ago that could have been a small company server running a database engine and a file server. The PC industry wants to make us think that we need a new computer every 2 years, but they just want to sell us things we don't need. IMO, only gamers need to change/upgrade their PCs frequently.

ORIGINAL: JimKW
I'm actually running a farily new system that has 512M of RAM. Once I blocked the ads things got much faster. The biggest gain I see is when I go BACK and the screen comes right up whereas with IE it would take a long time to populate the screen even going back.


So now using this forum on dial-up is not that bad? How long does it take to reload this thread if you press CTRL-F5?

Axel, I absolutely agree that gamers are the ones who need top of the line everything; CPU, RAM, Video Card, Sound Card, Streaming Video all running simultaneously. I once did a simulation on a Dell's XPS option adding page, and a fully-loaded XPS exceeded $6,000[:-].

You are definitely my electronics mentor:D. BTW, do you find any difference between Pentium & AMD?


JPN

Two minutes exactly and I have a fairly fast connection at 41.3 kbps right now. I've seen that as low as 12.2 on occasions. When I hit refresh though it only took 30 seconds, and when I go back the screen just comes right up.

Took about 16 seconds to post this reply, which isn't bad at all.

Jim, well done on your browser improvement:D!! I may try out FireFox myself, as I have it in my PC as a back-up.


JPN

ORIGINAL: JimKW

Two minutes exactly and I have a fairly fast connection at 41.3 kbps right now. I've seen that as low as 12.2 on occasions. When I hit refresh though it only took 30 seconds, and when I go back the screen just comes right up.

Took about 16 seconds to post this reply, which isn't bad at all.


Try this: Edit/Preferences/Content/ Disable load images automatically. That should take it down to 5 seconds.

ORIGINAL: JimKW
Two minutes exactly and I have a fairly fast connection at 41.3 kbps right now. I've seen that as low as 12.2 on occasions.


Jim, I had that same problem when I used dialup some years ago. One day I could not connect higher than 19200 I took my notebook beside the phone pole and connected there at 53K consistently. I called the phone company and they sent a guy that rewired the phone line inside the house. I remember it was not expensive at all.

Another option would be to get a separate phone line (i.e. separate wiring) to make sure that the wires are new and that there are no other devices injecting noise into the line.

My house is only five years old.

If you have too many phones connected to the line that will affect the connection quality.

Do you have unexpected line drops? If so you might have a wiring problem.

I highly doubt the problem is on my end because it's only certain times of the day when it's real slow. If I get on in the middle of the night I will get 44 kbps and right now (7:30 in the morning) I'm at 40. Earthlink claims everything is fine on their end too. I hardly ever have a line drop on my. I disconnect and reconnect often trying to get faster service though.

What kind of analog modem are you using? You could probably buy a used US Robotics Sportster 56K for pennies on eBay. Those were the best for noisy lines IIRC. Another option is to ask your ISP what modems they are using on their side and then get the same one. Sometimes different chipsets don't cooperate very well when they negotiate speed.

Your analog voice line is probably being digitalized somewhere down the road. Voice compression algorithms adapt to the amount of traffic to stuff more users in the same bandwidth. To do that they distort the signal. An analogy would be mp3 compression. It sounds just like the original song, but it isn´t.

ORIGINAL: axelm
It is very slow to navigate this forum on IE7. I am now using Firefox 2.0 with Adblock Plus to avoid all the ads and it works like a champ. It does not take longer than 2 seconds to load a thread while it used to take at least 10 using IE7.


Hi Axelm,

Thanks for your PM.

This is one of my favourite Volvo forum sites but I have always found it to be excrutiatingly slow - something like 40 seconds to get a page onto the screen. Some days it was so slow I've sat here wondering whether the page was going to come up at all.

After reading these posts I've also given IE7 the flick and now use FireFox as my browser. The pages come up in a matter of seconds now - which is great.

The problem I have now is that nothing happens when I use the 'Reply' button. The message box seems to be completely inactive and, for some unknown reason, will not accept any typing however, I experimented a bit and found there's more than one way of skinning a cat.

I found using the 'Quote' button, the message box works perfectly - hence this post.

Not the ideal situation, but quite O.K. for my purposes.

I'm going to put this AdBlock Plus on to see if it makes this site any quicker again - as other members claim it does.

Regards
Volgrrr

Just click in the box and start typing. It will work. You can not see the cursor and it looks different, but it does work. I said the same thing when I started using Firefox. It looks like you can not type, but you can.

You are spot-on JimKW.

I guess we are conditioned to becoming reliant on the cursor being visible at all times.

I tried everything trying to get the cursor onto the screen - but never once even thought about attempting to type into the message box without the cursor being visible.

Another little problem solved.

Thanks JimKW.

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