Firefox Guide For Beginners

Firefox is an internet browser made by Mozilla. It has many nice little features that can benefit even the most basic internet user, some of which include: added security, tabbed browsing, extensions and theming. Many users complain about Firefox being slower than Internet Explorer, but there is a very quick fix that can be applied to speed it up drastically. The added speed increase will make it equal to, if not greater than that of Internet Explorer. Paired with added security, theming and extensions there isn't much of a reason not to switch to the fox.

First and foremost, go get firefox from http://www.mozilla.com/ . Now we can get to the fun stuff.

Speed Boost
This is probably the most beneficial thing you can do to Firefox for everyday use. It is very simple to perform.

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

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.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. 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 recieves.

This will make Firefox load pages MUCH faster.

Now that we have got the performance part out of the way, lets start making it pretty.

Theming
This is where you can show off your own personal taste. Many users prefer classic, but for the ones who have to have everything made just for the, this is the section for you.

Themes are located at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/themes/

To use a theme, click on install now and wait for it to download. Once it is finished click on the theme, and then click "use theme" on the bottom of the theme manager and it will change it to that theme the next time you open up Firefox.

Well now that have made things pretty, it's time to get down to the biggest advantage of Firefox: extensions.

Extensions Last updated 10/23/06
Extensions are nifty little add-ons that can completely change your previous concept of internet surfing. There are many useful ones, and many not so useful ones. I am going to list the major ones and what they do, and if anyone has any that they would like to add to the list, simply post and I will add them.

Flash Got - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/220/
Flash Got is an addon that manages your downloads. It allows you to download one or multiple things from a site at once. A very useful extension.

VideoDownloader - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2390/
VideoDownloader is a nice little addon that lets you download the video you are watching by simply clicking its icon. It has a wide support of websites.

NoScript - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/722/
NoScript is an extension that further adds to the security in Firefox. It only allows executable content from the domains of your choice, so you don't have to worry about something downloading and running on its own from a site.

IE Tab - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
IE Tab is especially useful for web developers. It allows you to view a site in IE to see how your web layout etc. functions, and with one click, will take you back to Firefox.

DownThemAll! - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/201/
DownThemAll is the first and only download manager/accelerator for Mozilla Firefox. It is claimed to allow you to download at a speed increase of 400%. While that may be a little exaggerated, I can vouch for it, as I use it for all of my download needs, and it definitely does speed things up.

Tab Mix Plus - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
Tab Mix Plus adds lots of options for you to control your tabbed browsing experience. It is one of my personal favorite extensions, and no Firefox should be without it.

FoxyTunes - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/219/
FoxyTunes is a great little extension that allows you to control your music from your browser. No more minimizing your browser to change a song. It works with most media players as well. Isn't laziness wonderful?


Adblock/Adblock Filter.G Updater - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/ Adblock blocks all of those annoying banner ads located on websites, and since new ones come out everyday, the Adblock Fulter.G Updater, updates you automatically every few days.

Flashblock - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/433/ Stops Flash video from automatically playing when on a website, but once you click on the video it will start playing. Great for media rich sites that have multiple videos that like to play at once.

Linkification - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/190/ Turns any URL into a clickable link. Nice little feature.

If I didn't include one of your favorite extensions, feel free to post what it is and what it does, and I will gladly add it to the list.


I hope you guys have fun with the fox!

-Blake

 

thanks for the nice guide . i thought firefox was already faster than IE, but now it's much faster

 

Just some other extensions I use not mentioned (but imo worth it)
Adblock
Adblock Filterset.G Updater
PDF Download (helps prevent comps. the occasional crash from opening PDFs)
Auto Copy (mIRC copy style)
IE View (different than IE Tab)
Menu Editor

 

A few more extensions:
Flashblock - Blocks all Flash content, and replaces it with a little "play" icon. So if you want to see it, you just click. And then you're free from annoying ads with animations and sounds while browsing ordinarily.
Searchbar Autosizer - Resizes the little search bar in the corner when you type in it. If you type a long search query, it expands so you can read it all. So simple, but very convenient.

Linkification - converts any valid url to an actual link you can just click on directly.

Download Statusbar - Instead of the ordinary downloads window, you get a bar at the bottom of the browser containing your downloads, showing speed, estimated time left and other handy things.

 

I don't like any of the Firefox addons. It just seems unecessary to me

 

Great post!!

Anything that speeds up browsing and downloading is good in my book.

 

Gmail Notifier and Google Preview are also bloody excellent extensions!

 

Great job; I really like the IE Tab, just installed that. I'm definitely going to do that speed boost trick a bit later.

Thanks for putting the time and effort necessary into creating that, I'm sure you are going to help a lot of people.

 

I knew about all the network pipeline settings, but only found out about this one now

Holy great balls of fire! Even on my high speed uni connection, I notice faster operation +1 Rep

Lil Mayz... come on! Come on! You know it!

 

In the same way a browser is unneccesary? Real men use telnet...

 

Also try MouseGestures.. some may not like it but it is pretty addicting once you get used to it.

 

Updated 10/23/06

 

Really liking the FoxyTunes extension; installed that today and it is very convenient.
I have also installed:
-IETab
-Download StatusBar
-Tab Mix Plus

Can't believe I never did any of this stuff before.

 

So far Tab Mix Plus and Session Manager don't work with FF2 RC3. I hope those get updated soon. They work much better than Mozilla's version of tab management.

Anyone found a way to turn off the spell checking feature? Other than right clicking a field and unticking spell check each time.

 

just a quick note..the max setting for 'network.http.pipelining.maxrequests' is 8....higher values are ignored

 

Great guide. Thanks for the information about speeding up Firefox.

 

Great guide. I might even make FF my no1 browser one day! Anyway both newbie and veteran FF users, check this:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_1.html

It can be even printed as a booklet! (page by page, but no graphics or anything besides the text!)

Cheers,

Ivan

 

"I don’t even see the code anymore; all I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead"

 

Most definitely.

Although the one I use is called "All in one gestures"

Once you get use to it, your browsing speed will increase big time. Going back and forth between pages, refreshing, closing tabs.

Everyone should try it, there is no harm.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/12/

 

Great guide BTW...but I have one question: how to you keep FF from asking if you want to restore your tabs (after an unexpected shutdown)? For some reason it keeps asking me...probably because I shut down the computer without closing FF most of the time. It is quite annoying.

 

I have really noticed a difference in load times..... Great job!

 

ahem...

Firefox 2.0 Tweak Guide

its has the same and MUCH MORE...

(from the one and only TweakGuides.com)

 

I think it is already posted above. But yes it is THE guide.

Cheers,

Ivan