Try this. Type in the address bar about:config. Accept the warning. In the page that appears, in the Filter box, type network.http.max-connections . Change the value to 32 (which is probably set to 256 in your case). Close that page. Restart the browser.

Thank you for your response. It did not help. When I open the browser with old tabs it starts but does not load any data for more than one minute. There is no network data flow. Then suddenly it works. In save mode it is the same. Firewall off or on does not make a difference. Upgrade to FF 8 oder FF 9 the same.

If I take my old FF 3.5 there is no problem. But downgrading will not be easy with all new bookmarks, passwords and other data. Many things I will have to do by hand and it will be a lot of work. And then I am stuck with an old browser. Somehow no option.

I think after many days/weeks of trying I found the fix. I set the value (in about:config)

network.http.connection-retry-timeout

to 90000 - so much higher than it was. Why 90000? Why not :-)) I tested many startups and so far no problems anymore - still cannot believe it. But you never know ;-) If there will be problems again I will let you know. Did not try other values. For sure you can go lower. But perhaps tomorrow I does not work anymore - my browser is FF...

Just to give you an update. This network.http.connection-retry-timeout was introduced with FF 4. So you cannot have this problem with older versions. The idea behind this setting is that FF builds up a second connection if the server does not respond within the time set there. But sorry - with this setting I have to wait more than 1 minute to get data when I start the browser with existing tabs??? I have FF 7 now and even FF 9 has the same problem. The 90000 setting will solve the problem, perhaps a setting with 0 too. What great new feature...

Honestly - sadly I moved from FF 3.5 higher. The only thing that changed was a HUGE resource waste and new problems. And even more sadly - the way back is not easy or almost impossible if you have certain add-ons that use bookmarks.

Try WSR (Windows Speech Recognition) with FF - does not work. Just start it and scroll in FF - it will block and then jump. But it will work with any other browser. An old problem but nobody at FF cares for years. I know a fix in the registry for this. But this is no way to go for the many users. Without some add-ons FF wold not be on my computer anymore.

My advice - if you have anything below FF 4 do not upgrade. If you have a problem with WSR you will have to change the registry by hand - whatever FF version. But this is no real fix. You just block WSR to care about FF.

"The 90000 setting will solve the problem, perhaps a setting with 0 too. What great new feature... "

Thanks for taking the time to post but unfortunately it didn't work for me. Still getting the spinning connection wheels displayed on the Tabs.

Literally at my wits end.

Unfortunately, I've begun to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.08.

IE!!!

This is the first time that I've used it in years and am surprised by how quick it is.

I'll return to Firefox once this problem is resolved.

I also had the same issue, until I changed the following..

network.http.request.max-start-delay 2