[ib-announce] IBrowse 2.5.3 + AmiSSL 4.6 Released

IBrowse Announcements announce at lists.ibrowse-dev.net
Wed Jun 10 19:01:29 BST 2020


IBrowse 2.5.3 has been released today and can now be downloaded from
http://www.ibrowse-dev.net/ to update your existing IBrowse 2.5
installation (OS4 users can also upgrade using AmiUpdate). This is a
free update for registered owners of IBrowse 2.5. IBrowse 2.4 and 1.x
users can upgrade to IBrowse 2.5.3 via our store at discounted rates.
We hope you are all well in these strange times - stay safe!

The main target for this new version was to improve performance on
HTTPS connections, given that SSL is relatively slow on 68k
processors. Despite the performance enhancements that came in AmiSSL
4.4 (4.6 is available now, by the way), there is not much more that
can be done in AmiSSL unless someone is able to write 68k assembly
optimised versions of some of the modules (as is the case for
PowerPC). Therefore, some other options have been exploited to enhance
performance, which have been in beta testing over the past 3 months,
due to the major changes required to the HTTP engine...

SSL Session Caching
-------------------
IBrowse 2.5.3 now implements a SSL session cache for all HTTPS
connections, supporting all the differing session/ticket methods use
from TLSv1.0 to TLSv1.3. This allows the slow initial handshaking to
be bypassed on subsequent connections to the same host, thus
increasing performance noticably on OS3, and even on OS4 too. Most
websites support this feature universally.

Persistent Connections
----------------------
This is an older HTTP feature that was never implemented in IBrowse
until now, partly because IBrowse has always relied on opening
multiple connections to websites, which didn't really make this
feature worthwhile. However, it can be useful for HTTPS connections as
it allows them to be left open and reused, without having spend CPU
time renegotiating the SSL connection at all. HTTP(S) persistent
connections support is now available in IBrowse 2.5.3 (can be disabled
in the settings). Not all websites support persistent connections and,
some of those that do, do not keep connections open long enough (e.g.
1 second) to make a difference.

We advise that 68k users pay additional attention to the Max. number
of connections and Max. number of secure connections settings in the
network preferences. These settings may need retuning because of the
two new features described above. Probably, you should not set the
number of secure connections to above 4, otherwise multiple
connections can battle for CPU time and may well end up timing out.
Fewer connections can turn out to be faster, but we suggest that you
experiment with these settings to see what feels the best on your
particular system.

A number of other improvements and fixes have also been made and are
listed in the history log and newly updated changes summary. We would
also love to hear your experience of the new features on our mailing
list which is still working and hosted by Yahoo! Groups.



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