[thelist] Download Speed, Apparent or Otherwise (was: Really dumb question...)

Boris Mann boris_mann at sympatico.ca
Mon Jul 8 14:51:00 CDT 2002


On Monday, July 8, 2002, at 03:10 PM, Ken Kogler wrote:
>
> AFAIK, IE (and I would assume other browsers) can download multiple
> items
> (parts of a page) at once. If IE is downloading at 5Kb/sec, then the two
> sliced up 10Kb graphics will appear on my screen fully rendered as one
> graphics in 2 seconds. However, at 5Kb/sec, one 20Kb graphic (the same
> thing, just not sliced) will take 4 seconds to show up... twice as long.

Let's say you've got bandwidth of 5KB*/sec. Downloading two items would
*roughly* split this in half, to 2.5KB/sec. So it still takes about 4
seconds either way. There are all sorts of other factors, like the fact
that a 20KB file will take longer/need more processing power to actually
display.

So it all comes down to perceived/observed behaviour. Two smaller
graphics will display faster, even though it takes just as long to
download them...

* KB/s = 8 x Kb/s. So, a 56 Kb/s modem maxes out at 7 KB/s. Your
filesystem (and IE downloads) talk in KB/s...modems and other
communication devices talk in Kb/s.

--
Boris Mann
B. Mann Consulting
http://www.bmannconsulting.com




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