more firefox tips and tricks

One good thing about firefox settings aka firefox registry, is that you can edit them at your own will to suit your needs without having to dig down deeper from source code level.

Here are several firefox tips and tricks that makes your browsing faster, easier and more convenient, atleast to a larger number of firefox end users.

Make proper backups. To backup current firefox settings, you can issue

# updatedb
# locate prefs.js

and copy it to a different filename like prefs.js.old

If the below changes crashes your firefox, just copy your backup setting overwriting the other one then restart firefox. Do this at your own will, you've been warned. It worked with my box type, yours might be a different story.

However, if all things fail, just remove and re install firefox like so:

# yum -y remove firefox
# mv /root/.mozilla /root/.mozilla-old
# mv ~your-user-name/.mozilla ~your-user-name/.mozilla-old
# yum -y install firefox

without any consideration to previously installed firefox addons, plugins, cached sites or download history.

Firefox plugins are usually located to the below locations

/root/.mozilla/plugins
~your-username/.mozilla/plugins

You can create a backup copy of these folders and copy it back after your firefox reinstallation just incase.


However, IF you wish to continue, read on and goodluck.

To edit these firefox registry configuration values, simply launch firefox and go to address bar. Type

about:config

and hit Enter key.

To edit or change any registry values, simply type the configuration line from the filter bar address and firefox would interactively bring you to nearest match of your search.


How to disable IPv6 with firefox?

From filter box, type

network.dns.disableIPv6.

Hit Enter. The default value for this is false. From the preference window, just double click the line to change and toggle it to true value.


How to enable memory caching with firefox?
browser.cache.memory should be true

How to increase pipelining request in firefox?
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests preferably doubling the current value from 4 to 8. The value can be changed by double clicking on it.

How to enable HTTP pipelining with firefox?
network.http.pipelining preferably setting it to true

How to increase pipelining maximum request with firefox?
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests preferably 8 would be fine

How to enable network http proxy pipelining with firefox?
network.http.proxy.pipelining preferably set it to true

How to disable resizing of firefox window by websites?
dom.disable_window_move_resize should be true

How to automatically saved sessions and returning back to them between system restarts?
Click Edit > Preferences > Main Tab > Startup > Show my Windows and Tabs from Last Time

How to increase disk cache and memory cache with firefox?
browser.cache.disk.capacity preferably doubling the size would be better, say 80000
browser.cache.disk.enable should be enabled
browser.cache.memory.enable should be enabled
network.http.use-cache should be enabled
security.xpconnect.plugin.unrestricted preferably false

How to notify user for extenstion update
extensions.update.notifyUser preferably should be true

How to enable cookie only for current session with firefox?
network.cookie.enableForCurrentSessionOnly preferably should be true

How to expand live browsing connections?
network.http.max-connections preferably increasing it to 36 ot 48 if you browse to ofteb with lots of firefox tab pages

How to increase connection per site?
network.http.max-connections-per-server preferably increasing it to 15

How to update firefox?

# yum -y update firefox

Restart firefox and you're done.

HTH