SSL Accelerator

Speculatively performs SSL/TLS handshakes for hovered links to speed up browsing.

Author
Anon 2
Daily installs
0
Total installs
1,874
Ratings
11 0 0
Version
0.1.8
Created
2014-08-22
Updated
2014-09-02
License
CC0 1.0 Universal
Applies to
All sites

Accelerates navigation to secure websites by performing SSL/TLS handshakes in advance right before the links are actually clicked.

The TLS handshake is a lengthy, multi-roundtrip process that initiates a secure connection between the client and server. It includes negotiation of ciphers, generation of private keys, exchange and authentication of public keys, certificates and symmetric keys. The script will try to perform all that in advance by sending an HTTP HEAD request to the base path of the host when a secure link is hovered. When the link is eventually loaded, the browser will either perform an abbreviated handshake or none at all.

Note: If you're interested in following the script's activity, it logs messages to the web console, like this:

Handshaking with "www.adobe.com"..
Successfully handshaked with "www.adobe.com" in 822ms. 

Please note that the effect is relatively minor! This is mostly an experiment!
Feedback is welcomed!

TODO:

  • Inspect raw TCP packets to investigate how effective this is in various browsers and configurations.
  • Modify script not to depend on any external libraries (will remove any general browser slowdowns caused by loading the script's dependencies).