Slow load: Flash or Server?

[my little opihi]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for a little help from the pros ... do you know a way to use webstats to determine whether slow load times are due to Flash file sizes or a slow server (or even some other issue)?

I have recently been hired to content manage a website that was built by a third party four years ago that is very Flash heavy. I'm trying to figure out whether the slow performance is because of the server it lives on, the size of the files, or whether it's just our internet provider.

Wondering whether some or all of this can be determined by examining website stats. Are there specific sections of web reports that can help me clarify the problem?

Thank you!
Michelle

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Do you have the fla files to the flash content? If you do you can use Flash Professional to simulate a download. Do you have a link to your site?

[my little opihi]

Thanks Aero,

Here's the website URL

www.tcsurf.com

I do have access to the FLA files via FTP, but I don't have "Flash Professional" you mentioned.

The site is overloaded with Flash, no doubt. But whether we should spend the money to re-design, whether the server is sluggish or whether our own computers or service provider is the issue .. .those are the big questions.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Hmm really the thing taking up most of the space is that first flash movie in the content area when the page first loads. Does it really need to be that intricate?

Running your site through here
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
I get a page limit exceeded maximum allowance. This is the url I used
http://www.tcsurf.com/mainframeset.html

All of the motion tweens in the flash movie jack up the flash file sizes.

Most of your flash files range anywhere from 200kb to 1000kb. Those are really large file sizes. I don't think your server is the problem. I think its your file sizes.

[my little opihi]

Thanks Aero ... I'm no expert on Flash optimization for the Web, but I can see where we can cut down the Flash elements a lot.

[felgall]

80k is considered to be large for a web page (including all of the files that the page needs) so having single files that are many times that will result in almost everyone leaving the page before they even finish downloading.