Reply #18: Another Pipelining Test [View All]

Just let me say I'm not trying to get people not to use pipelining, nor am I saying there's anything wrong with it. It works extremely well for some people. I am saying it is still somewhat experimental in its implementation. It's the servers you're hitting that experience the biggest issue, and what I worry about is that this may cause problems down the road.

Anyway, here's a good test:

Before doing anything, clear your browser cache. Tools>Options>CLEAR Cache

With pipelining turned on (8 request is good), go to this site:

http://www.bushflash.com/animation.html

Then, leave the page, clear your cache again, turn pipelining off, and go to the same page. If you're turning pipelining on and off via the user.js file or something similar, you'll have to close and restart your browser to complete this. I use an extension called Tweak Network Settings that allows you do to this on the fly. Or, if you know how, you can do it via about:config.

If you're going to experience problems with pipelining, you'll experience them on that site. It will manifest itself as some of the individual graphic images getting "stuck" while loading. Hitting that particular page with pipelining on and off is a pretty good measure of what it does for your performance. Couple that with testing on a Stopwatch site, and you'll get a good idea what it does for you.

For me, I load the page in 1-3 seconds (depends on how long it takes the 3rd-party linked images to load) with pipelining off. With it on, depending on the number of requests I'm sending, the page stops loading with about 25-50% of the images timing out.