How Can I Adjust Max Connections Per Server For Web Browsing In Windows 10?

Question

_{Tuesday, April 16, 2019 2:43 PM}

I would like to know how to adjust the maximum number of connections per server that can be used by web browsers such as Firefox and Microsoft Edge, running on Windows 10 Pro, when viewing websites.  I have found and tried numerous approaches involving making changes or additions to the Windows registry, and involving changing settings in Firefox under About:Config.  But all of the approaches I have been able to find and try pertain to older versions of Windows and/or Firefox, and none have made any difference when introduced into the Windows 10 registry and/or the current version of Firefox.  Some additional background:

What I am trying to accomplish is to reduce (not increase) the maximum number of simultaneous connections a web browser can establish with the server of a website.  My wife has a website which includes a page having a lot of text and approximately 200 jpg's.  When we view that page using Firefox and Windows 10 Pro approximately 100 simultaneous connections are created (!) to that specific webserver, as determined with Netstat.  And using Microsoft Edge approximately 70 simultaneous connections to that server are created.  This has often resulted in the web hosting service imposing a temporary IP block.

One of the changes to the Windows registry I tried, which is stated to apply to Windows 7 and 8, is defined in an article entitled "How to Change the Number of Simultaneous Downloads in Chrome" at smallbusiness dot chron dot com (the forum software won't let me include a link, this being my first post here).  While that title refers to Chrome, it states that the change "affects every Web browser installed to your computer."  That and other changes I tried did not make any difference.

In Firefox, under About:Config, I had tried changing "network.http.max-connections" from the default value of 900 to 25, and then restarting Firefox.  That also made no difference.  I am using the latest version of Firefox (66.0.3), and it seems that it simply ignores that setting.  I am also using a fully updated installation of Windows 10 Pro.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.  Best regards,

-- Al

All replies (2)

_{Wednesday, April 17, 2019 2:23 AM ✅Answered}

Hi,

According to your description, i am not sure which side you want to configure, browser of client or web server application of server?

If it's client, of course you can configure it in browser configurations. Here is link about browser max connection numbers:http://www.browserscope.org/?category=network

If it's the web server, change this on web server application like IIS or apache.

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_{Wednesday, April 17, 2019 2:40 AM}

Thanks for the response and for the link.  I was referring to the client side; sorry if that was not entirely clear.

Subsequent to my original post I found that while the latest version of Firefox opens approximately 100 connections when viewing the complex web page which triggers the problem, even after I reduce the max connections setting under About:Config to far less than that (I suspect due to a bug of some sort), and Microsoft Edge opens approximately 70 connections when viewing that page (I have no idea why), Google Chrome behaves properly when viewing that page and opens five or fewer connections when viewing the same page.

So I've installed Google Chrome on all of my computers, and declared victory.

Thanks again.  Best regards,

-- Al