How can I mimic a slow dial-up internet service

[MikeFloutier]

Hi,Some of the pages on the site I'm working on (my first btw) play wave files to enable the user to listen to the text. Although they are 4bit and are usually under 1MB, I'm a little concerned as to how they will work with a slow internet connection.Is there any way I can get my browser/server/pages to mimic a slow connection?ThanksMike

[SFB]

there are websites that will tell you an estimate of how long it will take to load your page based on its size. just type in loading time test in google or your favorite search engine. then you type your url in the site and it gives you an estimate. http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loadi...ime-checker.htmabove are the first two from google. i like the first one better but they were both good when i used them

[MikeFloutier]

Thank you SFB,I tried the first one you mentioned and it certainly is very helpful and I'll be implementing it's suggestions.The main thing I'm interested in however is the time taken before the wave file starts playing and this isn't covered. The file in question is called up by the code "<object classid="clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95">......</object>, which I found in the W3Schools tutorial.Does anyone know how this object operates? Does it have to download the entire file before it can be played or does it stream it?ThanksMike

[boen_robot]

As far as I'm aware, no. It streams the content by default, meaning that it will play it as it loads. The only requrement for the user to hear the sound smoothly is to have at least the speed of the bitrate. For example, an MP3 file with a compression of 128Kbit/s means the client needs to have at least 16KB/s. Dial-up users of course don't have that much. They only have 56Kbit/s which is equal to 7KB/s. So in other words, if the compression of your music file is not larger then 56Kbit/s, it will play fine on dial-up modems. You can check it's compression rate in almost any sound editor or (I think) even when you click on it with the right mouse button and select "properties".

[MikeFloutier]

Thanks boen_robot,That makes perfect sense.A question springs to mind; is it possible to detect what speed of internet connection the viewer is enjoying?MikePs Oh, and another thing, the "<object classid="clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95">......</object>" I mentioned previously works in IE ok and slowly in Opera but not at all in Firefox.What would I need to do to get it working in Firefox?

[Chocolate570]

By the way, another way to do this is make your server pace the file downloads. Pacing is when the server doesn't allow your connection to download faster than a set rate. Now, I've looked all over for a link on how to do this, but I can't find it---does anyone know how to do it?