How to speed up Internet Explorer 8 by increasing the connections limit
When a web browser (IE 8 or Firefox for example) connects to a website it establishes connections. Each connection downloads one thing whether it is the html of the page, an image, or ad. Connections are used as a throttle that’s being held back to keep web servers and the internet from getting overloaded.
By default IE 8 only establishes two simultaneous connections at a time to download a web page. The two simultaneous connections limit is specified in the HTTP standard. The two connections limit can be changed on your computer through a registry edit.
Increasing the maximum allowed simultaneous connects from 2 to 16 can increase the speed of some web sites because the sites are downloaded in larger chunks at a time. Keep in mind that this won’t work on all web sites because the number of connections limit can be controlled by the web server.
Don’t expect this hack to make IE 8’s download speed super fast, but it will make some more advanced web sites more responsive.
Increase IE8’s Connections Limit
Warning: Increasing the connections limit requires editing the registry. Edit the registry at your own risk.
Note: You must be logged in with a user account that has administrative privileges to edit the registry.
1. Download this registry entry and save it on your computer.
If you’re not comfortable with running this registry entry on your computer, feel free to right-click it and select Edit to view the file contents. You’ll see it does nothing more than change two registry values dealing with your internet connection.
2. Merge the registry entry by double-clicking it and agreeing to the two information boxes that will appear.
3. Restart your computer.
Tags:Computer, Connections, download speed, Explorer, Firefox, hack, ie, IE8, Internet, internet connection, internet explorer, internet explorer 8, Limit, registry, web browser
May 11th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
[...] PctipsBox explains how to speed up Internet Explorer 8 by increasing the connections limit. [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Don’t do it! This will get you banned instantly by many sites because you’re “hammering the server” as the admins say. If everyone does this, then even more server operators will get annoyed enough to put in temporary IP ban policies. If you must do this, keep in mind that you may need to create a pair of .REG files to switch it back and forth. Use the 16 connections version for high latency stuff (or if you’re on a satallite connection), and go back to 2 for everything else.
Just export that registry key once for 16, and again for 2 connections. When you want to switch, you just have to run the version you want to reimport it.