Introduction

I’m not such a “power user” when it comes to web browsing, and having good connectivity both at home and at work helps forgetting about tweaking the maximum number of TCP connections in my web browser. However, I can think of a two cases where the establishment of multiple connections might bring great value to the power user: first, multiple file downloads. Being able to download several files at once might be really helpful in some situations. Secondly, in the case of complex web pages. When web pages contain different elements, the required download time goes up (which is often the case: images, sound, video, Java applets, Flash animations, JavaScript files, stylesheets, etc., are ubiquitous nowadays).

In this article I will provide an overview of multiple connection availability in some Mac browsers, and also provide some tips for Internet Explorer for Windows, in the context of the HTTP RFC. Continue reading →