Trying to reduce webpage loading times

[nuhorizon]

I've created the navigation (and top banner) for my website as a separate html file and "paste" it into each new webpage I create.

When the webpage is on the net, and the server gets a request for a particular page to be sent, does it still resend all the graphics associated with the navigation, or does it know that they have already been sent with the initial page and thus does not send them?

I'm trying to reduce the loading time of all pages. What techniques can i use to minimize these page loading times?

Thanks everyone...

[Vladdy]

Got a link?

[Aronya1]

Originally posted by nuhorizon
When the webpage is on the net, and the server gets a request for a particular page to be sent, does it still resend all the graphics associated with the navigation, or does it know that they have already been sent with the initial page and thus does not send them?

The entire page is resent every time it is requested.

If your site uses frames, the outside border pieces (usually the top & left-side nav column) stay put, and the body of your page is what changes. Frames are the fastest, but are not always well-presented by some browsers, can be a pain to code for, and are not a favorite choice of many on these forums.

Your browser caches files to your hard drive when you access a web page. The reasoning behind this is that the next time you visit that page, it can access some of the page's content from your local drive instead of downloading everything across the net. In theory, this will make pages load faster. In reality, it usually doesn't work well, if at all. In fact, IE will cache so many files that it slows down your entire system, not only when surfing the web. I always set my clients' IE cache setting to no more than 5MB. Even that allows for a huge number of files.

[spufi]

Though it hasn't been said, use CSS to format your page and then link to it externally. This way after the user downloads the CSS file once, they don't have to download it again for the rest of your pages. Other things that bog down a web page, table based layout, excessive code use in general(<font> tags and JavaScipt), and the amount of images and Flash.

[Ben Rogers]

As a dial up user, i must agree with spufi ('sepcially bout the flash) and i think u should get into shtml...

decent,simple tutorial: http://www.within-reason.com/tutorial/shtml.html

[nuhorizon]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going to soon have a "beta" version and I'll supply a link to the page for your inspection.

I am linking to an external CSS file to format the text appearance for the nav buttons, headings.

I was hoping there was some way to tell the server "here's all the files for the nav and banner", so send that once for all pages of this website. That way only the text file, links, etc would have to be sent down when a page is requested.

Any way of doing that?

Thanks.

[Vladdy]

How many links do you have in your navigation???
Your HTTP exchange would take more bytes than just leaving banner and nav in HTML page :rolleyes:

[nuhorizon]

Good point Vladdy. I have 8 links in my nav. They are simple links (no tables involved) on top of a small button graphic. There is jsut one button graphic file that each of the links use.

Oh, behind all the buttons, on the left side of the window is a graphic "backdrop", solid color with a shadow edge. It's about 8.5KB and the banner is 5KB.

What do you think about just leaving it as it is in the html code for each page?

Thanks.

[Vladdy]

Lets see <h1>Web Site Title</h1> - will be your header - banner graphic goes as h1 background specified in external CSS

<ul><li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
...
<li>Item 8</li>
</ul>
is your navigation - once again all the formating is in CSS