Differences in dowload speeds with NS & IE?!

[top]

HI,

How do you explain this:

I downloaded the same file from 3 different locations (the file was at the same location but me was positioned at 3 different places using different backbones) using IE 4 and NS4.06 or IE5.5, NS4.08 and NS6. Every time IE was significantly faster in bringing the file 'home'.

When trying with IE 4 and NS4.06, IE's speed was about three times faster.

With IE5.5, NS4.08 and NS6 download speeds were ~230, 110, 150kb/sec respectively.

Proxies/disk caches were disabled plus I tried this today/yesterday and last week. Testing time and computers were the same.

[Mandrake]

I don't know specifics, but IE always seemed faster than Netscape to me too.

[Epgs]

same here

[Remy Canad]

you guys should try out opera. I have been using if for some time now and it seems a lot faster. And when it rarly ever crashes. Hmm I think once but that was my fault any ways it doesnt bring down your whole computer and, the whole browser is less in size than the ammount of ram ie or netscape eats up.

[Woofcat]

Opera isn't any faster than IE... it installs spyware on your system... The interface is crap... And it's just annoying to use...

IE is faster then Netscape mainly because a lot of its functionality is integrated into the Windows operating system... IE sucks on other platforms...

[}:8) Supermoo]

I imagine IE 5 on a mac would be nice, because they had to write it properly!

[Coolin]

The reason why IE seems faster while downloading files: When IE prompts you to download a file, it's already downloading the thing. Therefore, while you are picking the directory you want to have the file downloaded in, IE is downloading it into a temporary place. The speed which IE shows is the average speed throughout the transfer, so it seems that IE downloads faster. Netscape downloads only when you click on the Ok button and when you see that progress bar.

Look closely at the speed which IE downloads, it goes down. Netscape's goes up. They both actually download at the same speed, the meters just read differently.

Also, IE lies! It says that the page is 35% finished downloading when it's still looking for the page. This gives the user a feel that it's more "faster."

[Mandrake]

Originally posted by }:8) Supermoo
I imagine IE 5 on a mac would be nice, because they had to write it properly!

My girlfriend uses it on her Mac and it works okay.

[Rodie]

Originally posted by }:8) Supermoo
I imagine IE 5 on a mac would be nice, because they had to write it properly!

We have IE 5.0 installed on my old imac. It is *completely* different than the same program is on Windows. Obviously it's not integrated into the OS, but the interface is a whole lot different. The buttons all have a teal-like color to them, kind of like the color that all the new macs have. It's actually a really good browser IMHO, but about every other version of IE (including 4.5 and below) is absolute crap on the mac.

I almost always used Netscape on the mac, as it seemed to be just a bit better, until IE 5 came out and Netscape released a beta version of Nestapce 6. I don't know if it's any different now, but the beta version of NS 6 I downloaded had a terrible interface. It almost made my macs looked like windows (it even had some task-bar like thing at the bottom!) AOL totally bastardized the old browser I used to know.

OF course, I have an even older mac (75 mhz) that runs Netscape 2.1 (it's the only browser that will run without totally lagging the internet down.)

[Rick]

From what I've seen on my computer, IE boots up a lot faster than Netscape, but loads web pages a LOT slower. I haven't done a file download comparison on them though.

[}:8) Supermoo]

Originally posted by Coolin
Netscape downloads only when you click on the Ok button and when you see that progress bar.

I think they've changed it in Netscape 6, seemed to start downloading earlier on some files.

[}:8) Supermoo]

Originally posted by Rodie

Originally posted by }:8) Supermoo
I imagine IE 5 on a mac would be nice, because they had to write it properly!

We have IE 5.0 installed on my old imac. It is *completely* different than the same program is on Windows.

Now for Internet Explorer 6 on MacOS X using Aqua... mMmMmMmMm... me wants a Mac!