broadband fine, 56k = problems

[russOner]

hi,
i have made a simple website in flash which works fine for everyone with broadband, but if a user has dialup, the movie stops on the pre-loader.

why is this?? any way around it??

thanks..

[magicplant]

Hi,
Its difficult to say without knowing how your site is set (and maybe taking a look at the site also).
One way to reduce file size is to split the fla into parts. In other words have one fla for the home page, one for the contact page and so on. Then you can load each page as required into your main swf.
Cheers
Alan

[russOner]

the site is www.flatlandwa.com

it worked fine for dialup a couple of weeks ago, until i added 2 new profiles to the rider section (making it bigger). then it stoped working for dialup. so i created a test movie, which didnt have the riders section at all (making it much smaller) and it still wouldnt load. its very odd. I was going to implement the separate movies for each section, but the main interface still wont load with dialup.

thanks for your time

[magicplant]

Hi,
A few questions.
What is the actual size of your movie? Check this out by testing the movie and then hit "View" and "Bandwidth Profiler" you should see a graphic view of the site which will tell you the frames which are the "Heaviest" (sorry if im telling you how to do something you already know). Obviously it is batter o stagger your animations rather than have them all coming in at the same sort of time.
You can also generate a size report when you publish the movie. Select Publish settings in the properties panel and make sure you have the Flash tab selected. Then select the "Generate size report" box and then publish. This will give you a size report which will be located in your folder. it will give you specific sizes and may show you your problem.

Another thing which crossed my mind was (and again, forgive me if im telling you what you already know) when you removed the riders section and tested it did you clear your cache before you tested it? Otherwise you would be viewing the same movie as before.

Cheers
Alan

[russOner]

thanks i didnt know about the report...
but i did make sure i cleared the cache when testing it.

the heavy frames come up right after the preloader. is this problematic??
as the main animation does take up a fair bit of size...
the whole video is 500kb, i dont know if thats too much for how simple the site is?

i dont have access to a 56k so is there any way i can test it to make sure it will work for a 56k??

thanks alot for all your help

[magicplant]

Hi,
Again, to test in dail up you need to test the movie and then select "view" and then "Download settings", change them to 56k and then select "simulate download".
Its not ideal but it does help. Otherwise find someone with dail-up to test it for you.
500k is quite large. I think maybe you need to consider whether the animation is really worth it. Also, any pictures that you have in the movie, make sure you resize them to the correct size before you load them into flash, dont let flash do it. and maybe you could consider loading them dynamically rather than having them bulk up your file size.
When i first started i was always told to try to make my Home page less than 100k. One of the reasons why some people dont like flash sites is slow loading so i always try to make my first page load really quickly. Generally my holding page is about 20k and i load in my "home" page which is about 40-100k depending on the project.
Cheers
Hope this helps.
Alan

[russOner]

thanks alot for all the help.. i greatly reduced the size of the movie and now it works on 56k... thanks again!!