If I visit Huff Pro -

[truedelphi]

My computer is running pretty smoothly, in part due to all the help I get on this forum.

However once a week, I visit Huff Pro. And then the system slows down.

If my internet connectivity is in really bad shape, the next time I use Firefox to go on the internet, Firefox apologizes to me, and asks me to clear everything and start from scratch.

When I do that everything is fine.

But if I don't get the chance to start from scratch, in terms of internet sessions, i am plagued by very slow connectivity.

Any advice? (Other than never visiting Huff Pro.)

[Denzil_DC]

1. I don't have any specific advice,

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2013, 09:41 PM - Edit history (1)

but just wanted to sympathize that HuffPo in particular, with all the overload of bangs and whistles and multimedia ads on its front page plus the constant dynamically updating content, taxes even my relatively smooth-running system. CPU and memory usage for Firefox and Plugin Container can run very high, and that can take a while to settle down. If I've had a particularly busy session on other pages heavy on multimedia, I may even have to restart Firefox or do a Windows reboot to get my resources back under control.

Otherwise, I tend to leave Firefox running all the time while I use Word or whatever, and use Hibernate to shut down my computer between sessions. I only do a full reboot if things start getting clogged up or I get an update that requires it, so I don't recall Firefox complaining bitterly and asking me to start over, though once in a blue moon Firefox or Plugin Container may crash (seems to happen more rarely nowadays).

It does border on making me reluctant to visit sites like HuffPo, as the value I get from it isn't really outweighed by the possible annoyances!

There may be memory cache managing apps etc. you could use that could help get around this, but in the end it's down to bad site design coupled with the assumption that every visitor's running a state-of-the-art system with infinite resources. If anyone else has remedies, I'm all ears.

Better-designed sites like DU tend to give me few problems other than slow load times occasionally, often related to ad servers rather than the site itself (there are new protocols out now that let content pages load without having to wait for the ads to do their thing--I don't know whether DU's programmers have taken advantage of these, but I seem to have been having fewer problems with slow loading in recent weeks).

[truedelphi]

2. I do use various things to help,

But invariably within 24 hours of getting everything Bad Cookie-wise cleared off my system, it is Huff Pro that clogs everything back up.

Anyway I enjoyed your description of the in's and out's of dealing with these factors, and it does help me to know that it is not just happening to me.

[valerief]

3. Firefox

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2013, 05:53 PM - Edit history (1)

edited to add Privacy tab and note about custom settings and 3 sections under Privacy

Tools/Options/Privacy has 3 sections:
Tracking
History
Location Bar

Under Tracking
Tools/Options/Privacy/Tell site that I do not want to be tracked

Under History
Tools/Options/Privacy/Use custom settings for history (if you choose Never Remember History, you can't set the following items)
Tools/Options/Privacy/check Always use private browsing mode
Tools/Options/Privacy/uncheck Accept cookies from sites
Tools/Options/Privacy/Exceptions, list the urls you'll accept cookies from; list the urls you want to block from leaving cookies; you can update this as you go along

Under Location Bar
Tools/Options/Privacy/When using the location bar, suggest Nothing

[truedelphi]

4. Houston, I think you've fixed the problem.

One big thank you!

One question - in knocking out the cookies, will it mean a site I am used to won't load?

I realize I can fix that, but in terms of sites I visit, it will be a bit of work, if that is the case.

[valerief]

7. You'll have to add the site to the Exceptions list, but it's really not as much

of a problem as you think. You add them as you come across them, and the site stays as an exception. You don't have to add it each time you go to the site.

Hope it works out for you.

[PrestonLocke]

5. What are the computer specs? nt

[blogslut]

6. I avoid HuffPo completely

That site uses too many scripts.

In simpler terms - this means that, in order to see a HuffPo page as intended, your browser has to call out to numerous, outsourced JavaScript sites (on other servers) before a HuffPo page is properly rendered. When you open a HuffPo page, you aren't just opening the data that originates from the HuffPo server, you are also downloading the numerous Java Scripts that emanate from many, offsite JavaScript servers.

[truedelphi]

8. I once avoided them for at least six months.

And although I didn't have the ability to state the problem in technical terms, at least not as simply and eloquently as you did, I did realize that going there put my connectivity through a whole lot of horse puckey!