Data
Transfer Rates
and How They Affect Web Page Load Times
Why
do some websites load more slowly than others?
Can
websites cause computers to crash?
What
can the end user do to improve load times?
How
can I minimize the load time of my website?
Table of Data Transfer Rates
Why do some websites load more slowly than others?
A website
can load slowly for a variety of reasons. Lots of code within the web
page itself, lots of images, images with large file sizes, graphics
with large file sizes, they are all possible causes for why a web page
might load slow. So are bad phone lines, hardware and/or software problems,
line congestion and/or collapse. However, the most important and common
of causes is the technology in use. Sometimes the obvious escapes us,
and in this case, a very obvious example to point out is the difference
between working with a modem and a T1 or E1 connection. Of course, if
we add a bad line connection to the fact that we are working with a
modem, the reason why a website loads slowly becomes even more "obvious".
See the Table of Data Transfer Rates for a comparison of
the main technologies in use today.
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Can websites cause computers to crash?
Normally websites do not cause client computers to hang. What happens
is that sometimes it looks as though they have temporarily
crashed because the CPU is completely occupied with the task at hand.
Nevertheless, the computer hasn't crashed and there are signs -- like
the blinking lights from the telephone connection icon, the messages
in the status bar, and the LED on the NIC if you are connected to a
LAN -- that clearly indicate that the computer continues to work fine.
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What can the end user do to improve load times?
In
a word, the end user should be patient and let the web page load to
avoid further complications. In any event, if you are working with a
slow connection and low speed technology, the situation is not as bad
as it might sound since your computer saves a local copy of all the
web pages you visit. This means that in 'real terms' your patience is
only going to be tested once because, with every visit after the first
visit, the copy is loaded and a complete retransmission of data isn't
necessary.
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How
can I minimize the load time of my website?
The
short and simple answer is that you can minimize the load time with
optimization, but things are never that simple. Here we enter into world
of trade-offs. For example, if you wanted a website that exhibited your
photography, you would have to find the trade-off between high quality
images and small file sizes. The better the quality, the larger the
file size, and that translates into longer load times (slower loading
web pages) given that there are more bits to be transmitted across the
wire. Like the photography website example, a portal website is going
to take longer to load due to the simple fact that it contains a lot
of information. If the website is going to have a lot of information,
you will have to limit that information to that which is absolutely
necessary so that the file sizes of the pages are as small as possible.
In both cases we have to sacrifice either quality or information if
we want to get the files sizes down so that the web page loads more
quickly. It is also important to keep in mind the website visitor and
their goals. For example, end users will wait longer to enter a portal
(knowing that once inside they will find lots of useful information)
than they will to see a personal website. In short, every effort should
be made to minimize long load times, but the task of achieving good,
appropriate optimizing in function of the type of website, its target
audience, etc., is far from simple.
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