In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Increasing number of threads browser users (_{^{and ensuring your DNS lookups are fast}}) is main thing.

Is this possible on IE please Andrew?

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 18-Jan-13 18:01:11)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Increasing number of threads browser users....

Is this possible on IE please Andrew?

Are you talking about this...?

If you are using Internet Explorer 8

1.Go to Start > Run
2.Enter "regedit" and hit ENTER
3.On the left, navigate to the following HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER folder by:
1.Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then
2.SOFTWARE, then
3.Microsoft, then
4.Internet Explorer, then
5.MAIN, then
6.FeatureControl, then
7.FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER
4.FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER should be selected on the left column
5.Go to Edit > New > DWORD Value
6.A box should appear. Put the name as "iexplore.exe", without double quotes. Press Enter.
7.Double click the entry you just created, select Base as "Decimal" and type 10 under Value data
8.On the left, click on FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPER1_0SERVER, which is just near to the one already selected
9.Go to Edit > New > DWORD Value
10.A box should appear. Put the name as "iexplore.exe", without double quotes. Press Enter.
11.Double click the entry you just created, select Base as "Decimal" and type 10 under Value data
12.Close Registry Editor
13.Restart your system and the changes should take effect

That a perfect set of instructions Ade, thanks .

But?

So I'm adding the DWORD, with the value of 10 in each entry. Is that the number of threads to allow? If so, what is the default?

In other words, you say the changes take effect on a reboot, but I don't know what to look for except snappier complex website loading.

(And I can navigate a tree - grrrr ).

Default, IIRC, is either 4 or 6 on IE8 / W7 and 2 on older browsers/OSs., which was fine in the days of dial-up and 1st generation DSL, but not much use for high speed fibre.


I read many moons ago ten is the limit, although I can't (for the life of me) work out why that should be the case. Decimal 10 is an unusual top-out for a hex number and a PITA (well; at least a waste) to store as a binary (1010 in a 4-bit word and 00001010 in an 8-bit word). Ten (as a limit) doesn't seem to make any sense (but we are talking about MS software here ). Unless the max connections per server value shares a word with something else (but still a stupid value, even if it's only allocated four bits - surely the limit would be 15 - or 16, depending on whether '0' is counted as zero or one).

but I don't know what to look for except snappier complex website loading

That's basically it...FWIU if allows IE to grab ten items at the same time, rather than two or six.
Less of a difference with IE8 / W7 (although 2/3rds as many items at once), but a massive increase from the default 2 of older browser/OS combinations.

In reality it makes little difference for largely txt based web sites, but does considerably speed up sites with large amounts of photos, Java, Flash embedded, etc.

BTW; it's a similar tweak (although in a totally different place in the registry for IE7.

No idea about IE9 - my guess is MS have either already adapted their latest browser (for faster connections) or moved it again!

The tweak does have a strange side-effect... Once enabled there's a slight pause when you load a new web page.
My guess is built into the browser (somewhere - good hunting) is a feature where IE (or Windows) waits until it has a response from all threads before loading anything on the page.
So you get a very slightly longer (albeit still quite short) initial pause, but then the page and all elements load much faster.

I'm on IE9 so maybe the default has changed again. The two registry entries are where you said. I agree 10 is a very strange number.

I might give it a whirl when in the mood .

Is there a comparable set of instructions for Firefox or Chrome?

For firefox, go to "about:config" and enter "network.http.max" in the search box... this will show a few values which you can change, in particular "max-connections" and "max-persistent-connections-per-server"; if you use a proxy server you may want to increase the "max-persistent-connections-per-proxy" (exact wording may vary with version but you get the idea).

In reply to a post by tallseabird:

Is there a comparable set of instructions for Firefox or Chrome?

You can access the Firefox limit from within Firefox itself (none of this Microsoft 'hide it in the registry' nonsense)...
Type about:config in the Firefox URL bar and scroll down to 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server'

It seems Chrome is fixed at 6 connections and it's not available to change (it's fixed within the code).

Edited by adebov (Sat 19-Jan-13 13:36:08)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I agree 10 is a very strange number.

I've done a bit more digging and the general consensus seems to be the number '10' is banded around as being a limit imposed by some web-servers (probably a DOS attack prevention measure). If such a server detects more than 10 concurrent connections from a single IP, they disconnect.

its worth mentioning the defaults on threads in browsers such as firefox now breaches RFC, its impolite to use high numbers of threads to fetch content from a web server.

In practice not many people actually care hence the defaults been bumped up, but still I wouldnt go to excessive values, especially if keepalive is been used. (now enforced on firefox 18).