Private Browsing Without Closing The Active Firefox Session

One of the things that has always annoyed me in regards to Firefox’s private browsing mode was the fact that the browser did close the active session before switching to that mode. And while Firefox offers to save the active session, that is the open tabs and other session related information, it is nowhere near as comfortable as a solution that would spawn a new private browsing window without affecting the active session.

Google Chrome and the Opera web browser handle the private browsing mode this way for instance. When you start the incognito mode in Chrome for instance, you will notice that it spawns in a new window without affecting the old regular browser window.

Private Browsing Windows for the Firefox web browser bypasses the restriction in Firefox. Since it is not possible to override the feature directly to open the private browsing mode in a new window, developer Sören Hentzschel came up with the next best possibility: Use a different Firefox profile to load the private browsing mode window. This way, it is possible to keep the original Firefox window and have the private browsing window appear in a new window at the same time.

The extension will automatically use a profile that is labelled as private. It will otherwise launch the built-in Firefox profile manager to provide the user with a selection menu (and an option to create a new profile if only one exists). This profile is then used to load the private browsing window in Firefox. The profile manager pops up every time, unless you change the name of a profile to private.

Private Browsing Windows adds an icon into Firefox’s add-on bar that triggers the extension’s functionality.

Users who try the extension need to keep in mind that they need to close the browser windows in the correct order, to avoid the loading of the wrong profile on the next start.

The extension can be useful for Firefox users who work in the private browsing mode from time to time, and wish that there was a way to keep the regular browser window open when they do.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Improve Firefox Private Browsing With Private Browsing Window Add-on
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Firefox Private Browsing Mode ByPassed By Add-Ons About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday March 11, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, private browsing

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4 Options To Save Bandwidth, Speed Up Web Browsing

There are certain situations where it may make sense to save as much bandwidth as possible while connected to the Internet. The most obvious is if you are limited to a certain amount of bandwidth per month, after which you are either cut off from the Internet or have to pay extra fees for all additional traffic that you have caused in a billing period.

A second if your Internet connection is not the fastest, to cut down on the time it takes before websites are completely loaded on the computer.

This guide looks at some of the options that you have at your disposal to speed up your Internet browsing and save bandwidth at the same time. Lets start.

1. Opera Turbo

Opera Turbo is a feature of the Opera web browser. It basically routes traffic through an Opera server where it is compressed before it is send to the user computer. The compressed web pages are considerably smaller, which saves bandwidth and speeds up the time it takes to fully render the page in the browser.

Opera Turbo offers two modes of operation. First an automatic mode which enables Opera Turbo whenever a slow network connection is detected by the browser, and second an always on mode so that the feature is activated all the time.

2. Faking the user agent

Many websites perform a user agent check during connection to determine the web browser and device a user is using to connect. Here on Ghacks for instance, you are either taken to the full site or the mobile site depending on the header.

The mobile site is often reduced to the bare minimum as the connection speed of mobile clients is on average lower than that of desktop systems. The advantage here is that mobile sites transfer a lot faster and use less bandwidth because of this. Faking the user agent of your desktop browser could provide you with these benefits. Keep in mind though that you may not be able to use all of a site’s functionality because of this.

This can usually be done quite easily with the help of browser extensions. Google Chrome users can for instance install the User-Agent Switcher in their browser, Firefox users the User Agent Switcher add-on for their browser.

3. Disable Features

A third possibility would be to disable features on some or all websites to save bandwidth. You could for instance disable all plugins to block plugin contents from being loaded at all. That’s for instance useful on sites that make use of Flash contents.

The options do not end here though. Most browsers let you disable images for instances or JavaScript to reduce the amount of data that is transferred further.

Google Chrome users can for instance block images, JavaScript and plugins in the browser’s settings.

Extensions like Adblock Plus or NoScript can also block some page elements from being loaded.

4. Disable Prefetching

Prefetching technology loads web contents that you may visit to speed up the page rendering time if you do. If you do not visit the prefetched web pages, bandwidth has been wasted.

Chrome: Enter chrome:\\flags into the address bar of the browser and hit enter. Make sure the following features are disabled:

Disable hyperlink auditingPreload Instant Search

Enter chrome://chrome/settings in the address bar, tap on enter and make sure the following features are not enabled:

Predict network actions to improve page load performanceAutomatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google

Firefox: Enter about:config into the address bar and hit the return key. First time users need to confirm that they want to continue. Filter for the term network.prefetch-next and double-click it to set it to false if it is set to true.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Save Network Bandwidth
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Bandwidth Caps for Time Warner Users ? About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday March 2, 2012 -
Tags:save bandwidth, speed up internet

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