Firefox has become really slow....

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:51 am

When I first put it in (3.0) it was lightning fast. But now no matter where I'm at, it takes too long to open a page. It times out on me a lot as well.

I asked earlier about FasterFox (tweak program) but I still can't open the program. (xpi file)

I just ran my CCleaner and it made no difference.

What can I safely do to speed things up? I don't want to mess around with stuff I know nothing about and lose the computer but if there's simple way of bettering Firefox, I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:53 am

in the past I have deleted many folders, pics, stuff I didn't even realise was there.............my speed was much better!

just remember when deleting, you must at the end delete from your recycle bin............or it hasn't been deleted.

Firefox is sometimes slow for me also!...........but I accidentently deleted internet explorer, so have no choice but

to use this one...................stupid person I am!

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:08 pm

What is Firefox, is it an anti virus programme?

shelbell · Post by **shelbell** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:10 pm

Sounds like you might have some "bugs" in your computer. Do you have Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D downloaded? Also delete your browser history, use your disk clean-up and disk defragmenter. You can google the Ad-Aware and Spybot to download them, just make sure you download Ad-Aware and NOT Adware. Between these 2 programs, they should clean your system out really good.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:18 pm

Thanks Odie and Shelbell.

I have an antivirus but no spybot. I'll go get what you suggested.

Abbey- Firefox is a web browser put out by Mozilla.

Here

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:24 pm

RedGlitter;970492 wrote: When I first put it in (3.0) it was lightning fast. But now no matter where I'm at, it takes too long to open a page. It times out on me a lot as well.

I asked earlier about FasterFox (tweak program) but I still can't open the program. (xpi file)

I just ran my CCleaner and it made no difference.

What can I safely do to speed things up? I don't want to mess around with stuff I know nothing about and lose the computer but if there's simple way of bettering Firefox, I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks.

What version do you have? It's now up to 5. You can always try removing and reinstalling it as well. What about your ISP provider? Could be a local problem with them.

Do you use open office as well?

shelbell · Post by **shelbell** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:25 pm

RedGlitter;970552 wrote: Thanks Odie and Shelbell.

I have an antivirus but no spybot. I'll go get what you suggested.

Abbey- Firefox is a web browser put out by Mozilla.

Here

A lot of time Ad-Aware will pick up stuff a regular antivirus program won't. Remember, if you don't like it you can always uninstall it. Just make sure you do all the cleaning out of it first...then download the other programs.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:36 pm

gmc, I have the 3.0 version. I thought that was the latest??

I did uninstall before to go back to an earlier version but that gave me problems too. I don't know what open office is? I don't use any kind of office type programs.

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:44 pm

I use Spy bot search & destroy...

If I were you I would first look at the amount of hard drive space you have and if you do not have much left I'd delete programs that I do not use under "Add and remove programs"...

If that's of no concern I'd delete all of my cookies and temporary internet files then delete many folders you never use but when you start getting into that you usually have to fool around with the registry...

After doing all of that I'd then run your disk cleanup and then defragment as Shelbell suggested...

If you do all of that and still have a slow computer you might want to think about buying some memory...I believe it runs at about $30 per 500MB...

shelbell · Post by **shelbell** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:30 pm

Hi RG, did you get your computer working any better?

Richard Bell · Post by **Richard Bell** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:58 pm

RedGlitter;970492 wrote:

What can I safely do to speed things up? I don't want to mess around with stuff I know nothing about and lose the computer but if there's simple way of bettering Firefox, I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks.

I frequently delete my temporary internet files and cookies. You accumulate a lot of junk there just by being on the internet.

Everybody was raving to me about Firefox a few years ago, but it didn't impress me too much. I do like it better than IE, but seeing as I hate IE, that's faint praise.

Somebody on another forum recommended Opera. I downloaded it, and I fell in love with it. Beats the pants off FF, on my box, anyway.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:10 pm

Thanks everyone. I've been messing with FF all day.

I found that the tweak program I wanted isn't compatible with FF3.0 but I cleaned up some stuff, threw out programs I no longer want, installed Spybot and found an online tweaking guide that seems to have worked. We'll see how it does over a few days' time.

Richard, you really think that that much of Opera? That tempts me to want to try it. In the past when I've had multiple browsers (on another computer) and tried Opera, it crashed. I assumed that was why.

Right now I have FF and IE. I rarely use IE, it's there for backup. If I wanted to try Opera, would I want to eliminate the IE? Would there be conflict between browsers?

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:33 am

RedGlitter;970586 wrote: gmc, I have the 3.0 version. I thought that was the latest??

I did uninstall before to go back to an earlier version but that gave me problems too. I don't know what open office is? I don't use any kind of office type programs.

You're several versions behind, might be worthwhile updating. You can also set your options up so you get notification of updates regularly.

Open office is the open source equivalent of microsoft office.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:52 am

Wow, I thought I was up to date with FF! I'll look into that.

In the meantime, I have installed Opera 9 and uninstalled IE 7 because I feared conflict among three browsers and I don't use IE anyway. I would really like some advice on how to get used to Opera- this thing has all kinds of gizmos! It seems complicated but hopefully that's because I'm new at it. It does seem quick and since I messed with Firefox it wasn't too bad either, but I'll look into the updates. Thank you.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:58 am

Thanks Ian, I'll keep that in mind

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:59 am

Uninstall and Reinstall Firefox(by downloading it and starting from scratch). Clean out all your difference browsers cache, and make sure you don't have a virsus or a trojan horse. If your browser is timing out it could also be your internet connection itself.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:53 pm

gmc;971131 wrote: You're several versions behind, might be worthwhile updating. You can also set your options up so you get notification of updates regularly.

Open office is the open source equivalent of microsoft office.

I think it's Mozilla that's at version 5 - Firefox V3.0 has only been release over the last week or so.

crazygal · Post by **crazygal** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:00 pm

Bryn Mawr;971782 wrote: I think it's Mozilla that's at version 5 - Firefox V3.0 has only been release over the last week or so.

You're right, I checked after reading this thread as I thought I'd got the latest and was confuzzled.

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:02 pm

Here is yet another browser to add to your collection RedGlitter.

I tried it but couldn't get on with it.

Chrome

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:28 pm

Oh hey Bruv- that's the new Google attempt!! I'm doing good on Opera and now Firefox but I'd like to hear how Chrome works for others. If it's really great I would probably switch over. My problem is I hate change...I get attached to things, even browsers and it's hard to try something new.

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:45 pm

Bryn Mawr;971782 wrote: I think it's Mozilla that's at version 5 - Firefox V3.0 has only been release over the last week or so.

Isn't Mozilla and Firefox the exact same browser?...

Post by **spot** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:23 pm

K.Snyder;971930 wrote: Isn't Mozilla and Firefox the exact same browser?...There's a timeline at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers and discussion about what "mozilla" really means at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:26 pm

can someone explain what a browser is, I am on firefox if that helps?

I am assuming its whatever is on top?

Post by **spot** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:31 pm

Odie;971949 wrote: can someone explain what a browser is, I am on firefox if that helps?

I am assuming its whatever is on top?

Any program that displays web pages on your screen and lets you click a link to get to another one.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:33 pm

spot;971952 wrote: Any program that displays web pages on your screen and lets you click a link to get to another one.

which screen?

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:38 pm

The screen you're looking at right now for example. Your browser is what enabled you to get here.

Post by **spot** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:38 pm

Odie;971953 wrote: which screen?

Your monitor. The bit you look at when you're reading the page.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:44 pm

RedGlitter;971959 wrote: The screen you're looking at right now for example. Your browser is what enabled you to get here.

so just by clicking onto something on that particular page then?

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:48 pm

This what a WEB BROWSER is and does.

[QUOTE]A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Text and images on a Web page can contain hyperlinks to other Web pages at the same or different website. Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily access information provided on many Web pages at many websites by traversing these links. Web browsers format HTML information for display, so the appearance of a Web page may differ between browsers.

Some of the Web browsers currently available for personal computers include Mozilla Firefox, Avant Browser, Safari, Google Chrome, Konqueror, Opera, Flock, Internet Explorer, Epiphany, K-Meleon and AOL Explorer.[2] Web browsers are the most commonly used type of HTTP user agent. Although browsers are typically used to access the World Wide Web, they can also be used to access information provided by Web servers in private networks or content in file systems.[/QUOTE]

Post by **spot** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:49 pm

Odie;971961 wrote: so just by clicking onto something on that particular page then?

There's a vocabulary for discussing computer displays.

The monitor or screen is the hardware that displays text and images.

Windows has two meanings, there's Windows as a Microsoft trademark which refers to their range of operating systems like XP or Vista and there's windows which are user-controlled rectangles on a graphics user interface on a monitor. You can have windows overlapping or on different parts of the monitor so sometimes a window gets covered by another. A program can have several windows open at once.

Inside a window there can be tabbed areas where, if you click on the tab header, different content gets shown.

Inside a window or a tab there can be controls which allow you to change the window or tab content.

Outside of all the windows there can be areas of the screen like the Start Button or the System Tray which aren't in a window at all. There can be pop-ups.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:57 pm

totally confused on this one1!

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:06 pm

Odie;971988 wrote: totally confused on this one1!

Odie, you had told me that you had Internet Explorer, was it? Internet Explorer is your browser. Think of it like a car. It's what drives you around the internet. If your computer didn't have Internet Explorer or some other brand of browser, you wouldn't be able to see Forum Garden, for instance. You wouldn't be able to use eMail. Not everyone likes the same browser, just like we don't all like the same car.

I don't care for Internet Explorer or Netscape so I use Firefox and now Opera. They have their differences but basically they all work the same to get you where you need to go.

Hmm. I'm probably clear as mud, huh? :wah:

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:20 am

RedGlitter;972007 wrote: Odie, you had told me that you had Internet Explorer, was it? Internet Explorer is your browser. Think of it like a car. It's what drives you around the internet. If your computer didn't have Internet Explorer or some other brand of browser, you wouldn't be able to see Forum Garden, for instance. You wouldn't be able to use eMail. Not everyone likes the same browser, just like we don't all like the same car.

I don't care for Internet Explorer or Netscape so I use Firefox and now Opera. They have their differences but basically they all work the same to get you where you need to go.

Hmm. I'm probably clear as mud, huh? :wah:

Yes and the Internet is just what gives you the access to go online where as your browser is an application that allows you to navigate it...Think of it like your car and the world...The car that you've payed for is the Internet and the gasoline you buy for it is the browser...Obviously the online world being the world in this instance...You have to keep your car running with gasoline so that you may go places much like you have to keep your browser running to travel the Internet...

RedGlitter had a bit of water in her gas tank and she's now asking where else to go to buy fuel seeing as how the last place she's filled up has made her car run inefficiently to her own preferences...