My Firefox seems to be going slower and slower as time goes on. I'm still stuck with dialup until I get rid of a few debts, so do you have any suggestions for improving browsing speed? Is there some other browser that would be faster?

check for viri, check for trojans. Browser speed doesn't really have much effect on transfer speed. Why dial-up? Can you at least get DSL?

Three things -

1.As Tedster said,the last thing you want on dialup is spyware,so be sure you have none.

2.Download FIRETUNE That will get the best out of whatever connection you have.

3.OPERA is certainly lighter than Firefox,but not so sure about the speed.

Lots of factors for "browser performance"

Graphic rendering load
Network download speed and bandwidth
Raw cpu capacity
oversized Cache and too frequent cache validation

I can't get DSL for another year or so--until I get rid of some of my debts. I have Avast free AV and that seems to be keeping the viruses at bay, and I run Spybot and Ad-Aware frequently to check for spyware.

The Firetune seems to have helped a bit. Thanks for the link.

What settings do you recommend for these?

Hey, thanks for all of your help. I appreciate it.

There's a program called TCP Optimizer that you should download. While I've never used it with dial-up (you'll want to adjust the speed slider accordingly), it works excellent for getting the most out of a broadband connection. Give it a try, although trying to get more performance out of dial-up is pretty much wasted effort- too much of it relies on circumstances out of your control (line quality, noise, distance, etc), and any boost you receive is minimal.

ya.....i also think that your browser cache is too large..first of all clear cache and then reduce its size.....And for your topic "Fastest browser for XP" I would say no other is faster than Internet Explorer. I would suggest IE7(not 6 or older) for security purposes. May be it has security holes but if u r good at computer then by installing firewalls and other softwares u can make it secure....ITS FASTEST..I m surfing this site on IE7.
One more piece of advice.Have IE7 and Opera as well.....Surf trusted sites and forums and blogs etc. on IE7 but if you want to do any naughty thing on net like viewing P.O.R.N site use opera.....I personally use this trick .

It is and it isn't. I am vehemently against most accelerators and the "pre-cache" method. TCP Optimizer is great at configuring your registry for your connection speed, and I've seen a large boost in performance on any broadband connection I've tested it on. It doesn't run in the background or take up any resources- you can use it and remove it.

I do wonder if it would do anything noticeable for a dial-up though. And I steer far clear of any IE if I want to be a little more secure on the web.

@Bobbye
Ya, i have menitoned that too that IEs have security holes.....but it depends up to us if we give the hackers exploit that or not. I m using that and i have tested it thru various sites and softwares.....and (may be coz of security softwares on my sys) nonne hav found any one single hole...
I have all windows updates installed too..

and for those who dont believe that IE is secure i would suggest to go through this months PC world magazine. For those who thought that Mac is free from malwares and security holes was proved wrong. And one expert hacked into a Mac machine. He also have tried to hack a Vista system. He reviewed that Vista is much secure than Mac. And one article in that very magazine said that if you are using XP SP2 and wanna upgrade to vista for security only then give a re-thought to your decision. It said that if your are using firewalls(it said ZA) and anti-spywares/viruses and using IE7 then there is no need to upgrade for security to vista. It gave some tweaks for IE7 that most of us(advanced users) use. So, our XP SP2 is as secure as vista and more secure than Mac OS. So, IE7 is safe and fast....

As you probably know, I do quite a lot of work in our Security and the web forum.

Things I have noticed are:

Folks who use an alternative browser to IE, don`t seem to have as many malware problems. Maybe this is because browsers such as Firefox don`t use the dreadful ActiveX controls that IE does.

I`ve also noticed, that while Windows Vista isn`t as safe as some would have you believe, it doesn`t yet seem to suffer from as many security problems as other Windows Os`s.

I am willing to say, that this may well be that A) Not as many folks are using Vista.

And B) the Virus writers and script kiddies haven`t had time to expose and exploit what Vistas security holes are yet.

Regards Howard

may be u r right howard.....and till they start exploting we can use vista and IE safely :. Opera is also a good substitue to firefox. it creates much less problem than firefox.

I agree, Opera is a fine browser indeed, I`ve tried it myself a few times. However, I always seem to come back to Firefox, probably because I`m so used to it lol.

Regards Howard

Untrue!

You shouldn't add security software and give IE the credit. On it's own, IE is a malware magnet. And as far as Mac OS goes, there is still no virus that has successfully infected a mac, and I haven't heard of many adware and spyware issues. You won't see me using one, but, come on, you can't defend Windows security like this if you've had any experience in the field.

I use a wireless connection in my house and the speed is 54 mbps.My browser is windows internet explorer 7.

I have never cared for IE and its lack of security and I dont think the IE7 is much more secure than 6. I dont think we should even use the words security and IE in the same sentence. Back to the original question, i used FF for a while. Then tried Opera and realized it seemed much faster. So I use Opera only now.

Opera is great but it bugs me to wait for all the graphics to be downloaded before
any display is shown. This is great for the developers as it resolves multiple issues
with the screen layout and display by deferring it until all items are fully present.
It also solves the Netscape 'double-rendering' solution that to this day still has
memory leaks.

@yakwhacker
You cannot blame Microsoft so easily for making their softwares with security holes....those who have firm faith on Mac's security they shud check out http://www.pcworld.in/features/index.jsp/artId=6258695 and scroll down to Myth 7. and in that very magazine it was written that with anti-viruses/spywares and firewalls installed XP SP2 is as secure as Vista.
Ya we shudn't give the credit to IE7 but it can be used for surfing easily. I already said in my previious posts that do all mischeif on Opera. Use IE to surf secure and trusted ebsites only......i m using it since Feb-Mar 2007 and i have got no troble at all...