Download.it search icon
Advertisement

Internet browser plugin to enhance your computer's Internet bandwidth usage

Internet browser plugin to enhance your computer's Internet bandwidth usage

Vote: (107 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Fasterfox

Version: 2.0.0

Works under: Windows

Also available for Mac

Vote:

Program license

(107 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Fasterfox

2.0.0

Works under:

Also available for

Windows

Mac

Pros

  • Speeds up the Firefox web browser.
  • User-friendly interface.
  • Customizable settings for managing the network.
  • Uses idle bandwidth to prefetch links.

Cons

  • Increases bandwidth usage.
  • May increase the use of RAM on Firefox.
  • Not recommended for use on mobile broadband.

Fasterfox is a free, downloadable software plugin for Firefox. It aims to make the Web browser work faster.

Firefox is one of the most popular Web browsers available. Yet many users have complained for years that the browser's one disadvantage is that it does not work fast enough for them. That's where Fasterfox comes in to save the day. This software plugin makes the Web browser work significantly faster than when run without the aid of this add-on.

The Fasterfox software works in the background to prefetch links while you are browsing the Internet. Prefetching is the process by which links are automatically downloaded. The plugin loads and caches the available links on the pages you are browsing so that when you are ready to click on one of the links, the loading has begun before you even decided to click, making the new pages return in an instant.

The downside is that the prefetching function can use a lot of bandwidth by downloading excessive information that you may not even want to look at. There are a few ways to tweak this function so that you don't have to download and cache as many of the Web pages, but you will need to do this manually.

The four settings for Fasterfox are: Default, Courteous, Optimized and Turbo-Charged. You may have to play around with the settings for a while before you figure out what works best for you.

Other features included in Fasterfox are: a page loading timer, popup blocker, simultaneous connections, pipelining, DNS cache settings, and viewing in other languages including Spanish, French, German, Chinese and more.

All in all, this is a great piece of free software for anyone who loves using the Firefox web browser but would like to speed up their browser with a plugin.

Pros

  • Speeds up the Firefox web browser.
  • User-friendly interface.
  • Customizable settings for managing the network.
  • Uses idle bandwidth to prefetch links.

Cons

  • Increases bandwidth usage.
  • May increase the use of RAM on Firefox.
  • Not recommended for use on mobile broadband.