This article is only important if you are a volume buyer and speed is critical to acquiring new items. Most BINSniper users do not need to be concerned about load speeds or performance tuning.

This technique is intended for enhancing the performance of BINSniper 2.0 and higher.

Version 2.3 of BINSniper has some load balancing and performance improvements that reduce the need for this sort of tuning. You may still see some performance improvement if you have a large number of searches configured or run other browser based apps.

How it normally works:

BINSniper submits a request to eBay for each search you have configured. By default, Firefox will limit the number of connections to six and queue the remaining requests. So if you submit 18 searches, BINSniper will send Firefox all 18 requests. Firefox will send six requests to the server and hold 12. The remaining 12 will be submitted as each of the first batch completes. If you configure six or fewer searches, you will run at top speed under the default configuration.

How it works with the connection limit increased to nine:

BINSniper submits a request to eBay for each search you have configured. With Firefox set to nine connections, all nine searches are executed at once.  If you configure nine or fewer searches, you will run at top speed under this configuration. If you configure BINSniper to display auctions and BIN items (Settings->Settings) the number of requests is twice the number of configured searches.

How to tune for more searches:

If you configure more than six searches, you can speed up Firefox by adjusting the maximum number of connections. To adjust the maximum number, enter about:config into the Firefox address bar (where you type URLs). A settings list should appear. You may receive a warning first. If you do, accept the warning screen.

Enter or paste the following into the filter box on the settings screen:

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server

The default value in Firefox is typically six . Double-click the entry and change it to 9. Then restart Firefox.

Tuning even faster

You can set the value to 18. This will allow all 18 searches to execute at once, but may be too much for you computer to handle. If Firefox runs too slow with this setting, set it back to 9. If you have an older computer, a slower processor, or a laptop, you may find that setting the value higher slows down the process. Start at 6 and raise it slowly until you find a level that works with your hardware.

9 was chosen as a multiple of the maximum (18). This allows 18 searches to be executed in two passes.  If you set to 18, all of the searches will be executed in a single pass. Setting the value higher may improve BINSniper search performance and image loading performance of the multiple listings page. But there is a diminishing performance return as you increase the value. The optimum value will depend on your computer and network connection.

Please note that this setting affects all websites that you view, not just BINSniper.

Initial testing indicates that a setting of 9 will outperform a setting of 18, though the improvement is small and may vary.

 

Limitations

If you set the connection maximum higher than 18, BINSniper will discard searches if you exceed 18 active searches. This complies with a service limitation established by eBay. If you set this value to 18 or lower, there is no limit on the number of searches you can configure and the searches will be queued and batched by Firefox.

 

Testing the improvement thru a third party test site

To verify that you can connect to more sessions at a time, visit http://www.browserscope.org/network/test and run the network test. The test result named Connections per hostname should show the number of connections you selected.  If it shows six, your browser is running at the default level.

If you upgrade your browser, you should re-verify this settings. BINSniper 2.0 will also display this setting in the Debug->Cfg screen.

Please note that your operating system and your network may also limit the number of simultaneous requests. If you are running on WiFi, try direct connection to your router via a cable instead. Some routers may have simultaneous connection limits of their own. Check the router settings.

 

Use more specific searches for better speed and ease of use

For best performance, you must make your searches as tight as possible. Very broad searches will result in the entire item list being replaced with each update. More specific searches will yield fewer results and make it easier to work with the lists. You can use the streamer mode to separate lists on the screen, one for each search.

Limiting the number of searches improves response time, so you should combine your searches wherever possible.

For example, if you have the following searches:

ipod nano blue case
ipod shuffle blue case

You could replace these with:

ipod blue case

The nano and shuffle searches would be included, as well as other ipod models.

Or you can use the OR syntax to limit the results to nano and shuffle only:

ipod blue case (nano, shuffle)

which means:   items containing “ipod” and “blue” and “case” and either “nano” or “shuffle”

 

Network Pipelining

Firefox has settings to enable network pipelining that are widely recommended as cure-alls. While these may improve performance in some cases, they are not likely to improve BINSniper performance for most users. Broadband users are unlikely to see improvements, and BINSniper already implements parallel requests to the eBay cloud.  Pipelining may also introduce some security risks. See this article at sys-con for more information on these issues. We do not recommend pipelining to improve BINSniper performance.

 

Pale Moon

Pale Moon is a performance optimized version of Firefox for Windows. Pale Moon is derived from Firefox code, and has some hardware restrictions. It is not supported by Mozilla.

Pale Moon releases may lag Firefox release, but we generally do not require the latest Firefox version for BINSniper compatibility.

Some BINSniper users are running Pale Moon, but we cannot provide support for it. We have not tested any version for performance or compatibility.