Anyone getting faster internet page/image loading speeds?

Hopefully there might be some IT experts here that can explain why I'm suddenly getting faster page loads with my AT&T 12mbps connection.

 

Back in January 2018 it took over 20 seconds for the majority of web pages I frequent to load (including email accounts which could take a full minute) after clicking the sites icon saved to my Firefox browser's toolbar menu. Even Google I used to have as my default browser page after opening Firefox took 30 seconds to completely load the page. It's a simple white page! I even turned off my Adblocker to these sites. Didn't help.

 

Did a search on "slow web page loading 2018" and got a Quora entry linking to a VERY knowledgeable IT specialist who encoded websites for fast page loading... I am a wickedly fast loading page

 

...that entire page (which is now my default browser page) links to some very interesting reading including web page optimization encoding as well as some background on the site's creator Patrick Sexton who lives in the Philippines and info on how and why he offers his help for FREE!

 

At least I knew there were folks working to fix or speed up page loading through proper encoding standards.

 

About a week close to the end of June after providing a link to that site above over at LuLa my page loading speeds increased dramatically. I have no idea if providing that link had anything to do with it. I've always felt I was always being tracked by Google on my searches and maybe Google contacted AT&T and told them to fix my problem. I have no idea. I'm just guessing.

 

So before beginning in January 2018 I'ld click on the link to a page and get a white page with "waiting on: xxxx website", then "transferring: xxxx data" with a bunch of other "cloudfront dot such and such" in the lower left of the page which could take over 20 seconds to fully load the entire page.

 

Now after six months of slow internet I'm back to within 6 seconds at the most for all websites including email accounts.

 

Anyone have any ideas why or what was causing this?

Here's the "About" on Patrick Sexton. Pretty interesting guy...

 

Patrick Sexton and Varvy.com

 

All that web site optimization stuff is over my head but thought some would find it interesting.

You won’t see this because you have me on ignore, but ATT acquisition of Time Warner is a good place to find the answer I suspect.

They just expanded my service significantly.

Data gathering expansion is shifting into a higher gear.

Two edged sword.

Or it could be something else entirely.

I’ve simply noticed faster speeds as well and along with expanding my data plan at no charge, it came after the acquisition.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Moving On

My Comcast account went from around 30mbps to 120mbps a couple of years ago. I suspect they're doing it because they're upgrading equipment and due to competition. More for less, or at least the same.

The more data they give to you, the more they get on you.

The more data they give to you, the more they get on you.

Yep. We can try to protect important info, like PWs, card numbers, and protect from practices that open you to malware, trojans etc. But there is already so much information now generated and recorded on every site you visit, every product you look at, every opinion you've ever uttered on the net to just about anyone that unless you go totally dark web (which I don't know anything about and suspect to naive users like I would be, there's more danger lurking there of another kind) if people are squeamish about who has their tendencies etc. I think that train has already left a long time ago. ie Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Kasperisky Labs [sp] and that's just the political stuff. All the analytic companies gathering consumer information that web privacy is now an oxymoron at best. Or so it seems.

that entire page (which is now my default browser page) links to some very interesting reading

 

If you want an even faster default page, try about:blank.

I was hoping to get feedback from you guys on whether anyone here experienced changes in page loading speed similar to my situation across several months.

 

With my case I was troubleshooting throwing everything but the kitchen sink at my browser by clearing the cache and getting rid of cookies but that didn't help. At first I was beginning to think it might have been a loose Ethernet cable connect but then that doesn't explain why it suddenly slowed down right after New Years Eve in January. And I had disconnected all my cables and unplugged from the power outlet during a storm around March and that didn't fix the speed. I even rebooted my AT&T DSL box and that didn't work.

 

Now I just checked reloading Google and it took 4 seconds but that's probably sourcing from the cache which of course introduces another variable concerning what might have been a bad sector on my HD corrupting the browser cache. I tossed quite a few files right about the time the speed returned to normal but can't be sure.

 

DeviantArt was the worst at page download speeds which requires I turn off my AdBlocker and it would take over a minute to download notifications. Now it's faster than I've ever seen. But last week I noticed a new tracking and marketing script shown in the lower left corner of my browser attempting to transfer data from a company called "RubiconProject.com" as I was waiting for notifications which seemed to take forever to download where the page seemed to hang as it did before. Googled the name where it provided a link to "Opt Out" of their "Marketing Catered To My Interests" preference change. Before I clicked on the link I searched my browser cookies for RubiconProject and there wasn't anything, so I clicked the "Opt Out" and got confirmation on the same page. And sure enough, it dowloaded about 4 separate cookie folders with their name on it. I tossed them all. Haven't had any trouble downloading DeviantArt notifications any longer.

If you want an even faster default page, try about:blank.

I actually like the swagger of Patrick Sexton's page. Anyone who knows that much about page download optimization I want to keep company with. I respect what the guy's doing.

 

Besides I've had my fill of the white pages I'ld get waiting for a site to connect where I couldn't tell a browser hang from a slow connection.

My Comcast account went from around 30mbps to 120mbps a couple of years ago. I suspect they're doing it because they're upgrading equipment and due to competition. More for less, or at least the same.

How fast does a new website page that hasn't been cached take to download with those mbps speeds? Is it instantaneous?

My connection is 2300kBit/s downlink. Not impressive, but there is nothing cheaper on the market. I'd open task manager in Windows, to get insights what might be to blame on sluggish performance. - Is there a MacOS equivalent to it? - I can't complain about webpage loading speed until I try watching YouTube 720p 50FPS clips. It takes my underspeced Laptop a while to get my Internet browsers running but I'd guess it is the slow spinning HDD and absence of RAM (3GB) to blame?

My ATT is instant.

My connection is 2300kBit/s downlink. Not impressive, but there is nothing cheaper on the market. I'd open task manager in Windows, to get insights what might be to blame on sluggish performance. - Is there a MacOS equivalent to it? - I can't complain about webpage loading speed until I try watching YouTube 720p 50FPS clips. It takes my underspeced Laptop a while to get my Internet browsers running but I'd guess it is the slow spinning HDD and absence of RAM (3GB) to blame?

Thanks for the feedback on your much slower internet bandwidth. What are the times in seconds on average it takes to COMPLETELY download a typical web page like say Photo.net and in particular a non-cached never been to website?

 

I'm on a Mac, but from all the variables I've mentioned here that are inexplicable to the cause of slow page downloads I'm not going to trust any software driven analysis at this point.

 

Another variable I forgot to mention back when my download speed was abnormally slow was for some reason, when I Googled any questions regarding medical and health related topics, when I clicked on a WebMD or any other site link I've never been to (not cached/cookie'ed), the pages downloaded very quickly, almost within 6 seconds.

 

That suggests tracking software may have been getting in the way somehow. What else could explain that variable?

Unfortunately tight efficient coding is a thing of the past.

And features seem to win over efficiency and speed.

Many web sites seem to assume that you have a high speed internet connection, so they feel free to use it up.

And some/many want to make money selling ads on their site, that eat into the data flow.

I use an add blocker because I am tire of those ads and refuse to go to web pages that my ad blocker can't filter.

 

And for PN, I've turned off the blocker for this site, yet I still get the message that I have a blocker on.

Unfortunately tight efficient coding is a thing of the past.

And features seem to win over efficiency and speed.

Many web sites seem to assume that you have a high speed internet connection, so they feel free to use it up.

And some/many want to make money selling ads on their site, that eat into the data flow.

I use an add blocker because I am tire of those ads and refuse to go to web pages that my ad blocker can't filter.

 

And for PN, I've turned off the blocker for this site, yet I still get the message that I have a blocker on.

I feel your pain concerning all the ads that load on any website that requires AdBlocker to be turned off to even read the site's articles or participate in a forum discussion.

 

But as usual your experience is different than mine and we're both on the same internet. For example I have AdBlocker turned on for PN and have no problems, but I'm a paid member and I'm assuming you are as well.

 

My Yahoo email account got taken over by Oath and requires my AdBlocker be turned off to allow me to move my email to different folders including the trash. With it turned off they have ads that appear inline just above the emails subject line and are PERMANENTLY ATTACHED to the email in my Inbox so that when I organize them to my folders the freakin' ad goes along with them. It's ridiculous!

 

The ads that show up on the right column and in the empty section of my inbox I have no problems with and don't slow my download of the Yahoo email page. In fact all ads with the AdBlocker turned off on other sites like DeviantArt are pretty fast loading now.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Tim_Lookingbill

ARGHHHH

Attaching the ads to my email would be a cause for me to switch email providers.

I don’t have the ads.

Didn’t accept the terms.

I swore I'd never ever go back to Mediacom again, but my local alternative was 1mbps. My connection has slowed some since I signed back up, but I now average download times of 80mbps.

Not really happy, but service is adequate and I have to admit pretty reliable.

TIM...I live just put the road from you in Austin. I finally checked my speed this morning. My ISP is Sprectrum and I use Gmail. 30.6 Download and 7.97 Upload. Not all that great but it meets my needs.

I appreciate all those that provided overall bandwidth speed, but I REALLY, REALLY need to know how many seconds it takes for a website's initial opening page to completely load to where you can hover the cursor over hyperlinks that indicate they are clickable. Just because some websites appear to load their graphic interface completely doesn't indicate whether or not there are other things downloading in the background. I've experienced this time and time again and it is important to know the time in seconds a page completely downloads.

 

It's not that hard to time this. I've asked this several times in this thread and no one is giving any feedback on this. PLEASE report the time in seconds PLEASE!

 

Bandwidth speed according to what's measured by some arbitrary and obscure software off of some ISP provided server I no longer find valuable or valid. REALLY! I've measured my speed the same way and it doesn't give a realistic picture of overall download of how long web pages should fully download.

Wow.

 

Here goes.

 

That deviant art cartoon site thing:

4 seconds

How fast does a new website page that hasn't been cached take to download with those mbps speeds? Is it instantaneous?

Tim, About one or two seconds depending if their are photos and such.

Here's my speed test using my Comcast Speed Tester link

Xfinity Speed Test

DOWNLOAD SPEED 155.8 Mbps

UPLOAD SPEED 6.7 Mbps

 

I'm hooked up to my modem/router at 5.1gbps that connects to the Comcast cable.

The 155.8 above is the highest I've ever seen for my system.

 

If you want to check yours, use this link. Let us know what it shows.

Xfinity Speed Test

Now after six months of slow internet I'm back to within 6 seconds at the most for all websites including email accounts. Anyone have any ideas why or what was causing this?

 

It may be that your favorite websites recently switched over to using HTTP/2 or SPDY instead of the venerable HTTP 1.1. The new protocol speeds up page loads by multiplexing requests and responses and by allowing servers to "push" content in anticipation of the browser needing it before it asks for it.

If you want to check yours, use this link. Let us know what it shows.

Xfinity Speed Test

Sorry, Alan, that link is saying I have to update my browser which I can't do. But thanks for the feedback on speed in seconds bandwidth. 1 to 2 seconds is pretty fast.

 

Ookla Speed Test indicates around 15mbps download/1.96mbps upload which is higher than my 12mbps I'm paying AT&T for.

 

Google downloads even faster now at one second but it's cached of course. Previously when everything was very slow it acted like it was taking way too much time to download my login/avatar/notifications icons and tools menu that appear in the upper right corner. Leave Google for other sites and comeback and it would do it all over again as if it wasn't caching or it was downloading newer stuff.