I've been in the process of do a complete redesign of my website and I'm always trying to balance using tons of graphics with the fact that some people might get frustrated with download times if they have a slower connection. I'm just curious to know what type of connection most of you have to the internet. Personally, I'm on cable. It's pricey but I'll never go back. How about all of you?
Jeff P. asks:
DIal up. I've had cable and miss it. I can miss it until my hair falls out and it makes NO difference. It isn't available this far from town.
Charlie Self "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2,
2000
Dialup with such rotten phone lines that I've never been able to get better than
28.8 on a very good day. Typically it come in at 26.4.If they ever get cable (or DSL capability) out to our neck of the boondocks, I'll abandon this dialup so fast it'll make you dizzy.
Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA
Theoretically, at least, you should design for the lowest common denominator. That means shoot for comfortable downloading of a web page, with graphics, at 56K. That generally means holding graphics to a minimum cumulative per page and offering "thumbnails" linked to the larger size graphics ... and that's OK, words can still convey information, despite what the X generation producers do on TV and the big commercial websites.
Used to be a picture was worth a thousand words, but these days a picture that moves, morphs, dances, spins and makes noise is probably worth a damn sight less.
"Jeff P." wrote: snip
Dial up. I considered DSL, but they have issues with too many devices on one line. Cable was considered, but I'd have to set up a router (and you know I prefer Neandering) and wire all the computers. Expensive and pricey along with the security hassles.
Dave in Fairfax
Comcast Cable, recently upgraded for us without asking, and for no additional charge, to 4MB download speed.
Have you complained to the phone company about that? If so and to no avail, have you contacted your PUC (state regulator)? Your state rep/senator? In some states the "standard" has been simply clear voice service, modems be damned. (Even in upscale, close-in suburban areas telcos would spli the bandwidth on copper wires to serve two homes rather than run new wires, thereby capping dial-up speeds.) But that has been changing as Internet service is coming to be considered as a "basic" service. By federal mandate a lot of money is collected from telephone users around the country to subsidize local phone facilities in rural areas. If this were just 2-3 years ago, things might be different, but by now I think your telco could do better on dial-up speeds.
Certainly there are only so many hours in the day and a list of things to be done, but it could be worth the effort of a few phone calls and/or letters.
While I have not investigated the particulars, there are some ISPs (local to your area?) that enhance effective speeds by compressing data at their end before sending it down the local wires to you and then your computer expands them so they can be displayed. Whether that is available and effective at 28.8, I don't know.
Good luck. -- Igor
Unrestricted DSL - leaves the CO at 8, but it's down to 6-7 megs by the time it gets to my end of the cable.
Barry
Man, that sucks. I remember getting my first real PC and thinking that the
14.4 modem was "smokin".Jeff P. asks:
I have DSL.
DSL $24.95 per month
I'm on dialup. Broadband cable is too expensive here ($84/mo) and DSL won't sync up (I guess too far from the Central Office), so I'm sticking to the $12.95 a month. I suggest making thumbnails. Use pictures no more than 150 dpi. Yes, I become impatient if I have to wait more than a minute for a page to load.
Home: DSL Work: DSL
I'd estimate at least 40% of my friends with computers have broadband. One still has a 28.8 modem.
"Phisherman" wrote
$84 A MONTH!!! Holy crap. I just got Roadrunner to give me a promotional rate of $35 a month for a year by complaining and I thought that was still too much. I guess it's all relative.
My pages should all load in less than 30 seconds. From what I've researched, however, the magic mark is 10 seconds. Now, I'm never going to get it there because I DO want to use a lot of graphics but I'm finding that if I optimize my graphics as much as possible and still retain quality that I'm getting it down to 15 to 20 seconds on a 56k dialup line. I managed to get the total size of my projects page down to under
100k from a high of almost 200k by running all my images through Adobe Imageready. I'm still working on the rest of my site but it's almost there.Cable here.
Ian
That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard. I'd say the truth is "I just don't really care." :)
Personally, I'm on cable. It's pricey, but I'll never go back.
I hope.
It's hard to beat going from taking 30 hours to 20 minutes to download something big.
Ed Pawlowski responds:
Hell, I've got a 56K modem, but I've got a 28K phone line.
Charlie Self "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2,
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