Doing design work can be really tedious if you're on a slow connection. When I first started, I had a
fast 28.8 modem, and I hated it when I had to use my mom's computer or someone else with a slower modem. Of course, I didn't do a lot of Web design on this fast connection, I did that at work over a shared T3. Now
that was fast. There was a time when I was paying for a fractional T1 to my house, but these days I have to make do with cable modem speeds. Fast enough for my work that most of the time I don't notice any issues. How fast is the Internet connection that you use most often for Web design work?
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We are living in the internet age. Internet connections needs to be quick as possible. Bit in all countries its not the same.
Here in the UK we have a thing calleed ADSLMax, which Bt rolled out a few years ago and provides up to 8Mb downstream (but sadly only 484kB). Much like original ADSL, the speed you can achieve depends on your proximity to the telephone exchange, I’m lucky and live wihtin 1/4 mile, so usually achieve 7.5Mb, but the gauruntee no less than 2Mb.
Wo! Surprised to see that 3% still using 56k modems.
I thought they’d be dead by now
Ey Jon, if you’re surprised it’s quite obvious not just that you don’t know the market nor the economic situation of a lot of people.
Here in Australia, we are still yet to implement “real” broadband. The Government only recently put together a plan to move forward with this to catch up with the rest of the world, so that will take a few years to get going. On top of that they want to implement a content filter at ISP level which will have to scan every page and will block a lot sites and slow things down even more.
I have broadband but the cable guy said something about putting me on an unoccupied node and my connection speed is comparable to that of a T1. Nothing lasts forever but I’m lovin it.
my connection is a broadband connection.
Edia – Apologies if I offended you by being surprised at a poll result.
I thought the question was how fast is your “web design” connection. Now I appreciate that some countries may not yet have broadband. Maybe it would be good to see how many of those results were from countries that do have broadband.
However if you’re using a dial up 56k modem for uploading, downloading files and working on websites all day long I would think that a broadband connection would work out cheaper.
Anyhow, now I do know the market 4% ish still use 56k modems
The choices are deceptive. Cable Modem can cover any speed faster than a 56kb modem. A T1 is only 1.5Mbs which is faster than delivered by most cable modems. The cable modem can go up to 101Mbs right now so it is faster than a T3 (42Mbs). FIOS tops at 50Mbs (faster than a T3) while Cablevision in the NYC area aside from the new 101Mbs Ultra Tier has 15Mbs (10 T1 equivalent) and 30Mbs (20 T1 equivalent) tiers.
There was one category not mentioned in the article about connection speeds – mobile broadband – which many people are also using in-home if they are in an isolated area and cable is not readily available or too costly. There is a vast speed range. I’m using Cricket Broadband and it is definitely slower than DSL. At times it rivals or drops below dialup ;’) Not to mention awful customer service. You just can’t get in touch with them, except to pay your bill.
I’m smugly poking along on my 56kbps connection, because it’s the best way I’ve found to test pages where website visitors may be loading pages via congested free WiFIs; rush-hour shared cable connections; buggy wireless DSL; or merely virus-infested computers. If files upload and download fast via old-fashioned dialup, then my lightweight, web-standards pages are sure to load like lightning on your Blackberry.
Is this article useful in some way to Web Designers? Perhaps, Jennifer should create a poll with that question in mind. As a Web Designer, of course, it’s good to have the fastest connections speed for a number of reasons. I thought this article and the comments would be about the range of connection speeds a designer should test at, and how to do that on a single computer.