Does any browser actually support pipelining?

[glugglug]

I'm trying to test the pipelining feature I added to some HTTP server code.

Using a packet sniffer to verify, I can't find any browser that actually pipelines the requests!

First thing I tried was firefox 3, with pipelining explicitly turned on both with the network.http.pipelining option, and network.http.max-connections-per-server lowered to 1 to try to force it to use pipelining instead of sending the requests on multiple connections.

Even with this setting, and even after restarting the browser, it is waiting for a response from my server before it sends a second request, as verified with a packet sniffer - the pipelining option does nothing!

I tried with chrome, opera, and IE7, and none of those browsers pipelines the requests either.

Did firefox pipelining work in a previous version and they disabled it because it was problematic? FWIW the option in firefox 3 does nothing.

 

[Quiksilver]

Pipelining works for me. Perhaps there is something wrong with your code?

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Pipelining works for me. Perhaps there is something wrong with your code?

How do you know that it "works"?

The pages from my server load fine with network.http.pipelining = true in Firefox. That is not the issue.

The issue is, as far as I can tell, Firefox is NOT pipelining the requests, nor is any other browser. I created a page with a bunch of images & iframes coming from the same server to try to trigger the pipelining, no dice. If I limit it to one connection per server, it waits for the servers response to the 1st request before it sends a 2nd request, and waits for the response to the 2nd request before it sends a 3rd one.

Can you confirm that you see multiple requests on the same connection before the server responds to the first request with a network sniffer?

 

[glugglug]

Finally found something that does it:
Polipo proxy pipelines the requests.
Firefox 3, Opera, & the Proximitron proxy do not, despite claims otherwise all over the net.

I should note, Proximitron proxy ends up faster because it opens a huge # of connections, which in most cases is better than pipelining.