Firefox is slow while downloading
Every time I have to download big files (like today, I was downloading WoW's Starter Edition, which was 10GB), my Firefox is slow when loading webpages. Sometimes it wouldn't load the page at all and give me the typical "something went wrong" page. I'm pretty sure my laptop is strong enough to run both at the same time, so it must be the web browser issue. I don't want to download Google Chrome and test my theory just yet. I'm wondering if there's a way to stop Firefox from being slow every time I download a big file.
Additional Info:
[*]Firefox 10.0.2
[*]Only 4 add-ons with a theme
[*]Not too many tabs open (around 3 tabs)
March 10, 2012
4 Comments • Newest first
Exactly... you can run MapleStory and browse at the same time because each of those don't use a lot of the available bandwidth. They "share" a lot better.
A big file though, hogs most of the bandwidth leaving very little for anything else. It won't completely stop your browser from working, but it will be really slow.
It also depends on the uploader as some push so much data that the network queue becomes occupied and delays all other data being sent. It should be further noted that online games consume a small amount of bandwidth whereas downloading files can easily saturate the internet connection.
[quote=BobR]It's not the web browser, and it's not your computer. It's your "Internet bandwidth".
When you download a large file, it takes up most of the "bandwidth" you have available from the Internet.
You only pay your ISP for so much data capacity, and downloading will take up most of that.
Anything else, like browsing the Internet with a web browser -will- suffer slowdowns because the download is using most of the bandwidth capacity.
If you'd been trying to play Maplestory at the same time for example, that would have lagged badly also.
It's like at school, when everyone flushes the toilets, you only get a trickle from the drinking fountain.
That's because they're all sharing the same water pipe coming into the school, and when the toilets are running, there's no water left for the drinking fountain.
When the toilets shut off, the drinking fountain comes on again.
Everything you do on the Internet has to share the same "pipe" coming into your house from the Internet.
When the download finished, your browser could get full speed again.[/quote]
So if I download a big file, the Internet is unusable for anything else then?
I used to be able to run like a few different games (MapleStory, Allods and Skyrim) and still browse the internet flawlessly. Well Skyrim doesn't require Internet but still.
It's not the web browser, and it's not your computer. It's your "Internet bandwidth".
When you download a large file, it takes up most of the "bandwidth" you have available from the Internet.
You only pay your ISP for so much data capacity, and downloading will take up most of that.
Anything else, like browsing the Internet with a web browser -will- suffer slowdowns because the download is using most of the bandwidth capacity.
If you'd been trying to play Maplestory at the same time for example, that would have lagged badly also.
It's like at school, when everyone flushes the toilets, you only get a trickle from the drinking fountain.
That's because they're all sharing the same water pipe coming into the school, and when the toilets are running, there's no water left for the drinking fountain.
When the toilets shut off, the drinking fountain comes on again.
Everything you do on the Internet has to share the same "pipe" coming into your house from the Internet.
When the download finished, your browser could get full speed again.