This really is just a whine, because I don't have a viable alternative to suggest at the moment.

The big banner adds cause a noticeable slowdown when loading every page on Daniweb, and sometimes after the page has loaded when trying to scroll. I say noticeable because not only can I see it and have to wait for it, it's slow enough to irritate me...on a T1 at work and fast cable at home. I can only imagine what it's like for people with slower broadband and dialup.

Just giving you the heads up.

Thank you - I'm actually aware of the problem, which should be corrected by sometime next month when a new advertising campaign begins. In the meantime, the only thing I can do about it is what I already am and will continue in the forseeable future to do - which is running all ads in an IFRAME (as opposed to inline JavaScript code) which shouldn't delay page rendering times. The ads should just load in their own time independent of site content. (This is unlike JavaScript, which can slow down page rendering times while it's being parsed and executed by the browser)

Can anyone else confirm that the ads are affecting page loading times for them? For me - the entire site loads and is browseable right away, and then the ads just sorta pop in a second later. This is how it is for me in IE, Firefox, and Safari.

I load on Firefox, and it doesn't take that that long, although it can get annoying after awhile when the connection slows down. But that's not too often. But ya, to answer your question, it does seem like the ads slow the page load alittle bit.

Hmm ... there is not much I could do about it right now as I am under contract. But I will take this into consideration if and when I renew certain ad campaigns. I'll also do some research on IFRAMES because I was really under the impression that it's like loading multiple old-school frames each to a page on a different server - it would be the same as loading two pages in your web browser at the same time.

To be perfectly honest, no. I really don't see any noticable diff when the pages load. Using Firefix and IE.

I'm probably getting more peeved than Narue. It is absolutely maddening at times. And it is moreso here than any other forum [edit]that I regularly visit[/edit] -- but DevShed is close.

It's slow from my end too, but it's expected from the plague of ads.

Ads or no adds, iframes or javascript. You can know all there is to know and the network will wreck all your efforts at optimisation. If everyone had a degree in network analysis a lotta ISP's/Telecoms would be in the dock, a 1mbps line NEVER actually delivers 1048576 bits in a second, the best topographies manage approx 1/3 of that, most are worse.

Are you configured through a (well set-up) proxy server at work/your ISP ?
That should cache a lot of the adverts and speed things up a little.

We got 10mbps shared amongst just 8, but we're 5 hours ahead of NY. After lunch it all slows down as the good ol' US of A wakes up and goes online.

Nearly 100,00 members! whats your requests per second Dani? I'd love to know that.

It could also be the amount of traffic. I'm in another forum that is MONSTROUS and it's extremely slow and they don't have any advertisements, but they do have thousands of users online all the time. If it is the ads then could it be that they are flash? Could you find an alternative?