How do I prevent inactive tabs from establishing connections every time after starting firefox?
I have 100+ tabs opened, basically using them instead of bookmarks. "Don't load tabs until selected" has been checked. Still, every time I start firefox I see a long list of established connections that includes domains of the tabs. I would prefer to keep using firefox the way I like without publicizing my activity hours.
Modified by desanimo
All Replies (5)
Do the tabs actually get loaded as well?
Are that normal tabs or -pinned tabs?
No, those don't get loaded, just normal tabs.
Okay, I did, what I should have done from the beginning and sniffed what it does. Turns out firefox downloads favicons every time. Meanwhile disabling favicons is not my goal per se, seems like this is what answer I need. https://support.mozilla.org/ru/questions/822236 Still hoping for a better solution, though.
Huh. Nope. Disabling favicons doesn't help. Getting same situation.
Modified by desanimo
What kind of data is Firefox requesting or is there only a connection set up or a DNS request made?
You could try to toggle network.*prefetch prefs like these.
- network.dns.disablePrefetch
- network.prefetch-next
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
Two screenshots. 10 seconds after I launched firefox. Blank page. Background tabs unloaded, didn't touch them at all. One netstat, other what wireshark sniffed. It seems like firefox refreshing all the favicons. I have strict privacy settings in firefox, but even turning them off (like don't delete anything on shut down) solving the problem only partly.
Modified by desanimo