Firefox Speed Tweaks

Yes, firefox is already pretty damn fast but did you know that you can tweak it and improve the speed even more?

That's the beauty of this program being open source.
Here's what you do:
In the URL bar, type “about:config” and press enter. This will bring up the configuration “menu” where you can change the parameters of Firefox.

Note that these are what I’ve found to REALLY speed up my Firefox significantly - and these settings seem to be common among everybody else as well. But these settings are optimized for broadband connections - I mean with as much concurrent requests we’re going to open up with pipelining… lol… you’d better have a big connection.

Double Click on the following settins and put in the numbers below - for the true / false booleans - they’ll change when you double click.

Code:
browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs – true
network.http.max-connections – 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server – 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy – 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server – 4
network.http.pipelining – true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests – 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining – true
network.http.request.timeout – 300


One more thing… Right-click somewhere on that screen and add a 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. Since you’re broadband - it shouldn’t have to wait.

Now you should notice you’re loading pages MUCH faster now!

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Top Firefox Add-ons

Are you a Firefox user? If so, this feature is especially for you. There are plenty who still use IE, but the popularity of Firefox is rising, with more and more users getting hooked to it. I like Firefox mainly for the add-on plugins, which are easily available on the official website. You will find scores of them, but I shall list the five I find most interesting. There are so many options that no two persons will have the same list. So if you have anything to add, or if you disagree with me, do leave a comment. It will provide readers with more options.

Stumble Upon
This is simply the best add-on any Web browser could use. It appeals mainly to those who love to go through anything interesting on the World Wide Web. The way it works is very simple: after installing it you will see an icon on the top left of your browser. Every time you have the time, just click it and it will take you to any of the sites that other stumble users have tagged as "I Like".
It could be anything; an interesting Flickr account, or an obscure site with 3D fractal generators. If you like what you are reading, you can even write a review. It's all available to you at a click of a button.
That's not all. Interestingly, the site maintains a tab of what you like and what you have shrugged off as boring, and will regularly display content that matches your tastes. In fact, if you discover a website that you like, you can add it to the list for others to see as well.
You can get the plugin here.

Me.dium
Me.dium comes in handy when you make travel/movie plans with friends. How? "Be social when you surf the Web" is what the guys who made Me.dium tell you. Simply put, this plugin allows you to chat and surf the same web page (with your friends) at the same time.
To do this, everybody in your social circle will need to install this plugin, and add each other as friends. You will see your friends on your Me.dium network  list (on the left of the browser). Below each name will be a link to what they are surfing presently. This especially comes in useful when everyone is researching the same topic.
Don't worry; it won't take your friends to your Gmail account if that's what's bothering you. One thing to remember is that by installing this plugin you are allowing Me.dium to gain access to your surfing history. It works across Facebook, YouTube, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Flickr, Digg, Yahoo, and Google.
Get the plugin here.
Better Gmail 2
Ever since it launched (and even before it actually did), Gmail's gained prominence. I don't know anyone who isn't on it. So it makes sense to talk about a plugin that improves the way you use Gmail.
Better Gmail 2 does exactly what the name suggests. Apart from being able to change the skin at the click of a button, you get many other options. Firstly, every mail with attachments will have the respective display icons in the inbox, so you'll know whether it's (say) a word file or a PDF.
One important tweak this plugin offers is that every mailto: link you click will in turn be diverted to your Gmail account, rather than the erstwhile .Outlook express You can also learn additional keyboard shortcuts. That's brilliant, I think.
You can get the plugin here.

DownThemAll
I use this so often that I don't know what I'd do without it. On the face of it, DownThemAll is promoted as a download accelerator that's capable of increasing speeds by 400 percent. It gives you 'pause' and 'resume' options, and the best part is it allows you to download all the links or images on a web page by clicking a single button.
After installing, if you right-click on any page (say, Flickr) and click on DownThemAll, it will show a window with all the available pictures and download links. You can select what you like and start downloading. With this plugin you won't need an external download manager.
Get the plugin here.

Fast Video Download
I'm sure many of you techies will have this already installed. For the clueless, it's a useful plugin for YouTube fans. It allows you to download vedios from sites such as hi5.com, metacafe.com, vids.myspace.com, YouTube, and more.
A small icon at the bottom right of the browser page will show up after the plugin is installed. All you need to do is surf to the page where the video is streaming, and click on the icon. It will ask you if you would like to download it. Click on 'yes' and you are done. For downloading from YouTube, you will need an FLV player. Download it from the official website, or just get the VLC media player
Get the plugin here.

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Firefox Adons

Well seen as though we were talking about breaking passwords, here’s a tool for Firefox to help you manage your more secure passwords.
Better security without bursting your brain
Password Hasher is a Firefox security extension for generating site-specific strong passwords from one (or a few) master key(s).
What good security practice demands:

Strong passwords that are hard to guess.
Different passwords at each site.
Periodically changing existing passwords.

Why you probably aren’t practicing good security:

Strong passwords are difficult to remember.
Juggling a multitude of passwords is a pain.
Updating passwords compounds the memorization problem.

How Password Hasher helps:

• Strong passwords are automatically generated.
• The same master key produces different passwords at many sites.
• You can quickly upgrade passwords by “bumping” the site tag.
• You can upgrade the master key without updating all sites at once.
• It supports different length passwords.
• It supports special requirements, such as digit and punctuation characters.
• All data is saved to the browser’s secure password database.

You can download Password Hasher here:
passhash-1.0.5.xpi

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