Apr 13 2009
Making Firefox 3 Fast Again
Users of Firefox 3 might find it extremely slow when resolving DNS addresses when compared to Google Chrome, or even Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 8!
The problem lies with Firefox 3’s implementation of IPv6. By default, Firefox 3 would try IPv6 first. If your network is not IPv6, where 99% of us belongs to, then Firefox 3 would wait for timeout and try with IPv4. You might have lost lots of miliseconds just waiting for IPv6 to timeout. The delay is even more apparent when accessing localhost or LAN sites.
The solution, for now, is to set the following setting to false in “about:config“:
network.dns.disableIPv6 = false
Restart Firefox 3 and enjoy the magic!