Low Bandwidth Browsing
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.