Slow pages.

[Roopa]

Hi

How do you judge if a page is slow. My largest page shows that it it 37 kb
and download time is 124 seconds. Is this really slow ? how much should the
pages be so that I can safely say that it will be alright on most of the
computer. I have quite a ot of pictures on the site. I have already
decreased the size of the pictures using irfan viewer. All my pictures are on
an average 5-6 kb and each of my pages have 4 - 5 pictures and am using some
interactive buttons..

Is there any way in which I can make the pages faster ?

Regards,
Roopa

 

[Tina Clarke]

How do you judge if a page is slow. My largest page shows that it it 37 kb

and download time is 124 seconds. Is this really slow ? how much should the
pages be so that I can safely say that it will be alright on most of the
computer. I have quite a ot of pictures on the site. I have already
decreased the size of the pictures using irfan viewer. All my pictures are on
an average 5-6 kb and each of my pages have 4 - 5 pictures and am using some
interactive buttons..

Is there any way in which I can make the pages faster ?

Regards,
Roopa

Set frontpage to 20 seconds on 28k modem ..... aim for that but don't be
worried if it's 30 seconds...

124 seconds is too high.... stick to four pictures a page .. if necessary
use thubnails ...put js and css into external sheets .. tidy up your code...
I have not seen your site so I can't comment further.

what is your url?

Tina


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[Ronx]

The total size of the page, including all images, external JavaScript,
css and the page itself should total less than 60KB, so that the page
and all associated files will download within 20 seconds on 28.8Kbs
dialup.

The download time given by FrontPage is often pessimistic, especially
when there are a large number of elements to download.

 

[Murray]

Most of the experts I have read say that engaging content must be provided
within 10 seconds.

The typical 56k dialup can download about 4K/sec. This means you have 10*4
or 40K of weight to play with. In reality, I think you can relax that a bit
to 50K or so. The download times given by FP are exceptionally optimistic -
using maximum theoretical throughput, rather than typical practically
achievable throughput.

If you can provide enagaging content in 10-15 seconds, then you can go with
an even heavier page. If you are looking at an interior page where most of
the graphic elements have been cached, then you can go even much heavier.

But it's up to you, really.

 

[Craig Schiller]

It's interesting that you say that FP's estimated download times are
exceptionally optimistic, and Ronx says they're pessimistic!

Craig

 

[Murray]

I know. I don't get Ron's numbers when I do the calculations.

Stick with me on this -

28.8 kbits per second = 3.6 kbytes per second. At about 70% practical
throughput, that is 2.5 kbytes per second. Thus a 60K page would require no
less than about 24 seconds to download.

Put it another way. I created a page with ~300K of images on it. FP2003
tells me that it would take 43 seconds to download at 56k, but the same
calculation as above gives 4K/sec as a practical throughput for 56k dialups,
and that yields 70-odd seconds to download. If you use 56/8=~7K/sec, then
you do indeed get ~40 seconds to download, but no 56k modem on earth ever
achieves 56kbit throughput, doncha know?

That's why I say that FP's numbers are optimistic.

 

[Windsun]

Actually with compression you can get more, and nearly all modern modems use
compression. Been ages since I used a "real" modem, but as I recall it
essentially makes a bunch of tiny ZIP files and sends those, then unpacks
them at the receive end.

I vaguely recall seeing throughputs of around 80k on a 56k modem.

But it has been 5+years since I used anything but DSL, so my mind could be
doing things...

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[Ronx]

I agree with that. Text can be expected to compress to a quarter of
its physical size, and images compress slightly. This does not apply
to broadband or ISDN.

An example from experience - FrontPage reports my home page will take
22 seconds to download at 56K.
In practice, with all caches and history cleared with a 56K modem
connected at 40000 (typical for my location), the page downloads and
fully renders in 12 seconds in IE6 and Opera7, 15 seconds in Firefox.
There is another page (mostly images) with a reported download time of
217 seconds - this takes less than 50 seconds in practise, though
admittedly a small part is cached before the page can be downloaded.

That is what I mean by the reports being pessimistic.
There is nothing like testing for yourself.

 

[Murray]

Thanks for the clarifications.