Building pages for 56 k or DSL

Should it be done?

[steelrane]

I would like to know if there is a way to build pages for different speeds like dial-up or dsl or cable? Does it really help? I have seen a lot of sites that have a button to click to select 56k or high speed. Is this a myth or for real?

[robert adams]

Most times those pages will have very heavy graphics or streaming video or something that really requires a high speed connection. People will give you an option of viewing the page that requires a high speed connection or one that does not have all the graphics, videos, whatever, that will work better on 56k or slower

Unless you know that your main viewers are going to be on high speed connections, my advice would be to always assume the slower 56k (quite often slower) connection speed.
That means that if your pages don't load completely in under 5 to 10 seconds, you will lose a great many of your visitors.

jmho,
robert

[steelrane]

So you can build two differnt sites for differnt users. Do you neeed two urls or can you put the two differnt sites on one url?

[robert adams]

They way I have seen it done is to put up an enter page that says click here for high speed page with lots of graphics
or
click here for low speed page with less graphics.
your url would be:

yourdomain.com/index.html (the enter page)
yourdomain.com/highspeed.html
yourdomain.com/lowspeed.html

if you have many pages that need high speed then you might want to just create two complete sites with the enter page linking to them.

My opinion is that you shouldn't do this at all if your goal is to sell something. (unless you are selling graphic design)

Why lose half your prospects before you can even get them in the door.
Many many people will just leave when they see an "enter" page.

make it easy for people to see what you have to offer.

robert

[jim_w]

I always build my pages for worse case scenarios. More than 1/2 my hits come from overseas. There are plenty of places a router could be having problems, or preventive maintenance being done somewhere, etc. and that can and does slow down conections. The internet is a big pipe, but it does have bottle necks. I figure if my page loads fast with 56k, it must really, really scream at 100mb.

[robert adams]

I'm with you Jim,
I just recently quit coding for 640x480. :)

seeya,
robert

[sem4u]

I figure if my page loads fast with 56k, it must really, really scream at 100mb.

I agree. However, if the vast majority of your users will be on broadband then create content especially for them.

Personally, slow pages on a dial-up connection can be a real pain. Too slow and users will go elsewhere.

[TryAgain]

I usually choose "low bandwidth", even though I am on broadband. :)

(I wish I could do the same with windows, I don't really need the fancy shmancy stuff which only serves to slow things down. I'm too stupid to use Linux so don't start ;-))

[steelrane]

Thanks for the input I try to trim my sites so they will load as fast as possible. I have heard that alot of people on dial up turn off there graphics and view the sites as text only. Has anyone else heard of this?

[robert adams]

Yes , some people do this. If they are on a real slow connection, or if they just don't want to be bothered with
banners etc.
Also, some handicapped people use text only browsers and text readers to access web sites.

luck,
robert

[bill]

I often turn off my graphics, and I have a 100Mbps fiber optic connection. If I'm looking for information the graphics are not always necessary. I know plenty of people that do the same.

[Josefu]

...but then, bill, you're a webmaster and 99% of our visitors aren't : )

Yes, trimming things down for 56k connections is a great idea if you have a commercial site, that way most of the 'market' will have the patience to wait for what they seek and you won't lose any visitors because of their slow connection and your graphics. Which is important because, again if you have a commercial site, you'll want to have commercial goals to deal with (your products selling or not selling because of your targeted market, advertising, links, etc) instead of having to reason around guesstimates about how many potential clients you lost because of your site's inaccessability to slow users.

[robert adams]

Yes I do tend to think in marketing terms for a website's usability. My mother and I are always arguing about her website. She is very creative and likes lots of graphics, animations etc. She has to keep reminding me that her target market is family and friends that will wait for a while for her page to load.

She is right, of course, she is the mom:)

robert

[satanclaus]

Business sites should be lean. You want it to load ASAP and to consume as little bandwidth as possible.