Grandcheapskate
Veteran Member
Are there tricks you can do with browsers to speed up web access?
As you have no doubt noticed, almost all websites seem to link out to many other sites, as well as execute lots of ActiveX stuff, as they build the page you really wanted to see. Probably a good topic for a rant, but this is more of a question.
While using Win XP and IE v8, I often put whatever websites I can into my "restricted sites" list as long as they continue to function. You would be amazed at the better response time you get when you stop websites from doing a bunch of unnecessary crap. If you set ActiveX to PROMPT in IE8, it's amazing how many times you get "prompted" for ActiveX activity just to display one page.
However, IE8 no longer works with many sites and therefore I often use the current version of Firefox (and WinXP). Firefox (for good or ill) does not give me the flexability to put websites into a resticted list, therefore I cannot stop all websites I visit from linking out to dozens of other sites. Watching the status bar at the bottom of the screen, I see dozens of sites are being accessed before I get the completed page I want. Many ad sites, Facebook, etc.
I have a couple forum sites I visit. I have these sites in my resticted list on IE8. When I test the response time for these sites using IE8 (resticted) and Firefox, the difference is staggering. The page displays almost immediatly using IE8 while Firefox takes a lot longer.
So are there any good browers which can run under WinXP, which give you the abilty to "choke off" all/some of those unnecessary links and activities? Are there tricks with Firefox to reduce both it's running size and response time?
Thanks...Joe
As you have no doubt noticed, almost all websites seem to link out to many other sites, as well as execute lots of ActiveX stuff, as they build the page you really wanted to see. Probably a good topic for a rant, but this is more of a question.
While using Win XP and IE v8, I often put whatever websites I can into my "restricted sites" list as long as they continue to function. You would be amazed at the better response time you get when you stop websites from doing a bunch of unnecessary crap. If you set ActiveX to PROMPT in IE8, it's amazing how many times you get "prompted" for ActiveX activity just to display one page.
However, IE8 no longer works with many sites and therefore I often use the current version of Firefox (and WinXP). Firefox (for good or ill) does not give me the flexability to put websites into a resticted list, therefore I cannot stop all websites I visit from linking out to dozens of other sites. Watching the status bar at the bottom of the screen, I see dozens of sites are being accessed before I get the completed page I want. Many ad sites, Facebook, etc.
I have a couple forum sites I visit. I have these sites in my resticted list on IE8. When I test the response time for these sites using IE8 (resticted) and Firefox, the difference is staggering. The page displays almost immediatly using IE8 while Firefox takes a lot longer.
So are there any good browers which can run under WinXP, which give you the abilty to "choke off" all/some of those unnecessary links and activities? Are there tricks with Firefox to reduce both it's running size and response time?
Thanks...Joe