Most of Fubars members are referred to using either a Webkit based browser (like Google Chrome, Comodo Dragon or Safari) or a Gecko based browser (like Firefox or K-Meleon), but there are a few that use a Presto based browser named Opera. Opera is like any of the browsers mentioned above (meaning they have different API's and Settings.

There are always Pros and Cons to every Web Browser (no matter which one you choose or decide to use). Each browser has a different level of Customability, but most browsers don't allow the user to customize the settings easily.

I have two other blogs ((How To) Speeding Up Firefox & (How To) Speeding Up Chrome) which explain how to speed up the browsers speed by a small fraction and hopefully this blog will be of some helpful insight into that as well.

Opera is already a very fast browser, but if you would have the choice between fast and faster than fast, what would you choose? I am not an avid Opera user so I did do some research for some of these results and compiled a list of Awesome Tips that will speed up Opera in several unique ways. Many of the settings can be changed by simply going to Tools > Preferences in Opera but some can only be used by accessing not so obvious ways like .ini files or User Preferences. Each way also comes with a Small Risk.

Please Note: Everything I am describing here has worked fine on their computers (and I'll be testing it on mine for a few days).
The changes made has sped up Opera to a small degree and has also increased the browsing experience that comes with it to that same degree.
While most tips will work for everyone no matter their connection to the Internet
Some tips might only increase performance for those that use a broadband or cable connection.
To change some of these preferences you may need to have the Menu Bar visible, and to do this simply follow the steps below.

Click on the button marked Opera on the Top Left Corner

This will open a menu, click the text that says Show Menu Bar

Your browser should now look like the image below

Once you have this menu follow the directions below and enjoy a speedy browsing experience :)

Disable Name Completion & Local Network Lookup

Whenever you enter a single word into the address field Opera will look for any reference (online or in local form) for that name and try to pull up suggestions to what your typing. This feature is commonly known as AutoComplete. Server Name Completion tries to append prefixes and suffixes to the name automatically. While this feature might be great for some users it also uses Time and CPU Power and should be turned of for Faster Browsing.

In order to turn AutoComplete off, Click on Tools > Preferences, Select the Advanced Tab and choose Network from the left menu.

Click on Server Name Completion and Disable Look for local network machine and try name completion, using.

Increase The Time Of Cached Images Before Checking For New Versions

Opera downloads images to its Cache File to be able to pull them faster (from your hard drive) the next time you visit any website. By default Opera checks every 5 Hours if a new version of that image has appeared on the visited website. If you increase this time you increase your overall performance.

Go to Tools > Preferences, Select the Advanced Tab and choose History from the left menu.

Select Every 24 Hours or even Every Week for image checks.

You can always refresh the cache manually by hitting the F5 Key on your Keyboard while visiting the website.

Remove Un-Needed & Duplicate Plugins

In Opera's address bar type opera:plugins.

This should display a list of plugins that are currently installed.

Take a closer look and see if you can find plugins that you never need or will never use.
(ex. if you never use Realplayer Streams in Opera you should Disable It)

To disable a plugin click on the Disable button located on the opera:plugins page you just opened.

Another problem are duplicate plugins that are caused by loading the plugins from Firefox as well.
This happens of course only if Firefox is installed on the same system.

You can disable this easily by typing opera:config in the address bar.

Navigate to User Prefs > Plugin Path and delete the Firefox reference there.

Disable Turbo mode

While this might sound a little bit strange at first to mention Disable Turbo Mode when it's present focus is to speed up Opera the rammification becomes clear soon after the person gets use to the browser. Turbo Mode means that Opera pre-draws any image which means you'll see part of the websites images although it has not fully loaded. This primarily uses High CPU, High Disk Usage & High Memory Usage, which could increase overall performance especially on slower computers. It will not be noticeable on new or fast computers though.

To disable Turbo Mode (if its not Disabled already) click on the button on the lower column of the browser

You can also type opera:config in Opera's address bar.

Type Turbo in the Search box and set the preference named Use Opera Turbo to 0
Then go to the User Prefs tab and uncheck the preference named Turbo Mode and click the Save button.

Increase The Number Of Total Connections

If you happen to load many tabs at once and like to read websites more or less simultaneously you might want to increase the maximum number of connections. This should have a drastic impact on loading times if you use a broadband or cable connection. It should not make a big difference for users with slow connections, such as 256K Connections or less.

Type opera:config in Opera's address field

Type Connections into the search field.

Change the value of Max Connections Total from its current value to another value
(if its not already set by default it has been suggested to change the preference to 32 or 64).
The Max Persistant Connections Server setting should remain as it is.
You might even want to test a lower setting, for instance change it to 4 connections (I'd leave it alone just to be safe).

Reduce The Amount Of Visited Pages In History

Opera keeps track of the last 500 Visited Websites by default. The benefit is that Opera displays all urls that fit the string that you enter in the address bar. You can then scroll down and load the website without entering the url fully. This can however impact the time Opera needs to startup.

A temporary fix would be to clear the history manually, a better solution to reduce the amount of websites that Opera stores.

Click on Tools > Preferences, Select the Advanced Tab and choose History from the left menu

Click on the Clear button next to Addresses if you want to test if this solution really speeds up loading times or reduce the number of stored addresses in the history right away.

If you don't want the browser to store anything click on the dropdown and select the value that says 0.

In Conclusion, there may be many different ways to increase the speed of one's browser (no matter which is used), but always make sure to clean your cookies and cache (read (How To) Clean Cookies & Cache for info on cleaning your browser) every once in awhile (especially on sites with heavy images[like Fubar.com]). Also make sure you have the latest Browser Plugins as well as the latest Browser Version for the particular browser you are using..

If you have any further questions about this or any of the other browser topics
Please feel free to leave a comment on this blog or private message a Fubar Bouncer and they will try to help you the best they can.
For faster results you can also visit the Support Lounge and the staff/members will help you to the best of their abilities..

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