The Motive Web Design Glossary

download, upload

Downloading is the process of copying files to your computer from a remote location, for example from a server.

When you view a webpage, text files, images, and other media types (such as audio and video files) are downloaded to your computer from a server across the Internet.

Uploading is the process of copying files from your computer to a remote location.

Factors affecting download and upload times

The time it takes to download or upload a file is affected by;

• the amount of data being copied (file size)
• how the computer is connected to the Internet (e.g. dial-up modem, wireless, satellite, ADSL etc.)
• how many other people are uploading/downloading at the same time (Internet traffic)

Related terms: bandwidth, cache, data compression, FTP, hits, hosting, optimisation, server, traffic.

References and further reading

• Average webpage size triples since 2003 (Websiteoptimization.com)
  28 Apr 2008: Statistical analysis of webpage filesize, increase in webpage filesize and media types (video, images, Javascript, CSS, etc.).
• Loading Time Checker (1-hit.com)
  Enter a webpage URL to test the time it will take to download (emulating a dial-up connection).
• Make your pages load faster by combining and compressing JavaScript and CSS files (Niels Leenheer)
  18 Dec 2006: PHP-based method for automatically delivering JavaScript and CSS files as a single compressed GZip file.
• Presentation layer performance tuning (Frederic Welterlin & Daniel Ruspini)
  An exploration of a number of methods that can be used to reduce the time it takes for a webpage to download, including: compressing, caching, merging, and content delivery networks (multi-server hosting). Also presents the concept of CSS Sprites: a single image that contains all image states (for example the hover states for buttons), and using CSS to crop the image.
• Preventing Safari from opening .sitx files as text (Mac OS X Hints)
  Pasting a link into Safari’s download window; or changing a server’s mime-type settings to ensure that .sitx archives are downloaded.

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