A Geek’s Think

Due to my current work situation (see the picture on the right of the page), I’m currently stuck with an extremely-low-bandwidth connection to the Internet.  This can turn simple tasks, such as checking my bank account, into monumental exercises in patience.  I once spent more than two hours trying to pay a cell phone bill without success.

While I can’t do much to get web designers to stop eating up my bandwidth with useless flashy interfaces, I’ve found several Mozilla Firefox extensions that make my browsing significantly faster.  Here are a few of them, in no particular order:

Adblock

Adblock is without a doubt my #1 tool in saving bandwidth, and I’m not just talking about blocking ads. Large images (anything over 5 KB!) or unnecessary Javascript files get the Adblock treatment, too.  Slashdot, one of my favorite sites and a notorious slow loader, now loads in less than a minute versus 5+ minutes before being trimmed down by Adblock. To check for large images, use the Media tab under Tools -> Page Info in Firefox. For a whole-page view of bandwidth sucking files, check out websiteoptimization.com.

DownThemAll

Downloading a large file can be laborious over a satellite link, especially when the connection seems to die every minute or two.  DownThemAll will keep on chugging past interruptions, not stopping until the whole file is down. It’s saved me from many a headache.  DownThemAll also functions as a powerful download manager, with support for download queues and other standard features.

Flashblock

Flashblock replaces embedded Macromedia Flash objects with a clickable image that when clicked loads the blocked object. In my experience, there are very few times that Flash actually contributes positively to a web page, so rarely have any reason to click. For those few exceptions, Flashblock has a whitelist feature to allow Flash content to be displayed without interruption.

NoScript

I just installed NoScript this morning and am loving it already. It blocks Javascript content on pages, which, like Flash, is often superfluous and bandwidth intensive.  Again, for those sites where Javascript is necessary to access the content, a whitelist feature is provided.

ScribeFire

Another recent installation, ScribeFire allows me to post to my self-hosted WordPress blog without actually visiting the slow-loading blog administration page. I’m using it right now, in fact, to post this blog entry. ScribeFire also works with other blog hosts such as LiveJournal, Blogger, and Wordpress.

Others

Several other Firefox Extensions make my life easier, but aren’t specifically bandwidth oriented:

• CustomizeGoogle - Allows me to choose what I see (and don’t see) when searching via Google.
• Download Statusbar - Replaces the download window with an informative status bar at the bottom of my screen.  I like.
• MediaPlayerConnectivity - Allows me to download embedded videos instead of viewing them directly in the page.  Also makes my life easier as a Linux user when dealing with Quicktime or Windows Media Player files, which have no official Linux player.
• Tab Mix Plus - Ever want to customize how your Firefox tabs behave? Ever had 20 tabs open when your computer crashed, losing hours of research? Ever accidentally close a tab? Tab Mix Plus fixes all that and more.
• Web Developer - Developing a web page can be complicated business, especially when CSS or large table-based layouts are involved.  Web Developer provides countless tools to make that process easier. It is one of the most popular Firefox extensions for good reason.

I hope I’ve provided some light at the end of the slow-moving Internet tunnel for those who, like me, are stuck with low-bandwidth connections. Enjoy your new-found freedom!