slow loading pages

[tyrojds]

could anybody give some common causes and remedies for slow loading pages? jargon is lost on me, so if anyone is kind enough to advise, please keep it simple, like me. thanks in advance.

[jackofalltrades]

Graphics are the biggee.

You need to get the file sizes down as low as possible (try to strike a happy medium between file size and quality).

Most professional graphics packages (paintshop pro, fireworks are ones ive worked with) have an "optimise this image for the web function".

This will basically allow you to view your orignal image on the left and the new image on the right.

In between there are loads of options that let you tweek your image. For example if you are using a gif image, the less colours you use, the smaller you will be able to get the file size.

Just mess around with the settings until the file size is smaller, but the two images look pretty much the same. You can generally reduce the quality of an image by a fair bit, without it looking too different to the naked eye.

Another factor in slow loading pages is the amount of code you use. As far as Im aware, certain HTML editors (dreamweaver, frontpage) can generate some excess code in your page, which contributes to a larger file size.

Im not too hot on cleaning up the code though, so maybe someone else will be able to elaborate on that one (you will need some technical knowledge to do it manually though - anyone know of an easy way to do it?).

rgds

JOAT

[creative craig]

Theres also another way of looking at:

The users connection to the Internet - 56K modem can at times be very verrrryyy slow.

The web server where the page is held maybe having a large amount of surfers request the same page at the same time you are.

Settings on the surfers PC, full Internet cache, history and cookies etc etc...

The list is endless :)

Craig

[sun818]

web server ... having a large amount of surfers request

It is not necessarily the same page, but just the load on the server. Depending on the web host, they may have overloaded the web server with accounts. Or there is a process-hog using up a lot of processor-time causing delays for everyone else. I had to switch hosts recently because the last one had over 700 accounts on one web server. It was sloooow! My current host is more reasonable loading about half that number.

Settings on the surfers PC, full Internet cache, history and cookies etc etc...

Having a Pentium II class or above computer with 128MB RAM will make graphics load faster once they are downloaded.

[edited by: Air at 6:15 pm (utc) on Oct. 16, 2002]
[edit reason] fixed end quote [/edit]