Something odd when downloading

I got BSNL DataOne Broadband Rs.250 (400 MB) 256Kbps package recently after using Dial-up for years.
Now I can connect instantly and the download speed is fantastic even if it's only between 30 to 50 Kbps but I understand why they're allowing only this much.

Here's the low down on usage before I get to the odd part.
400 MB per month - that's 13.3 MB per day (13,650kb). (1 MB = 1024kb)
If you consider that a single webpage (text + images) is 50kb in size then you can browse or download around 270 pages per day. Most webpages are between 20 to 50 kb in size so you can browse / download a lot more pages (this does not include music or videos downloads).

This is the part that evey broadband internet user should be blown away by.
The size of the webpage you download or browse depends on the browser you use.
If, as I suspect, most of you use Internet Explorer (I used to use IE 6) then you will pay a heavy price while browsing webpages. Try this : Using IE just open www.google.com and on a blank part of the page right click and choose properties. Look at size. It's usually around 3,740 bytes (3.65kb)
Now try it with a different browser. If you have the latest Firefox browser (if not then download Firefox beta, it won't take long), open the google home page. Again right click -> View page info and see the page size. In Firefox it's much less, around 1,436 bytes (1.4kb)
Do the same for ebay.in and yahoo.co.in and compare the sizes. Obviously Firefox uses some kind of compression and IE doesn't. I haven't tried with Netscape 8 but if anyone is willing to try and compare the results then please post them in this thread. Keeping both browsers open, open the following pages simaltenously so that the page content is identical.
Here are the size comparisons while opening the home page of each of the sites in different browsers.

www.ebay.in (home page)
Firefox ................: 10,063 bytes (9.83kb)
Internet Explorer : 55,716 bytes (54.4kb)

www.yahoo.co.in
Firefox ................: 15,339 bytes (14.98kb)
Internet Explorer : 53,686 bytes (52.4kb)

www.google.co.in
Firefox ................: 1,436 bytes (1.4kb)
Internet Explorer : 3,740 bytes (3.65kb)

The world over, 60% of internet users use IE while the rest use either Netscape, Firefox, Opera, Safari or some other browser. All who are using IE are paying dearly. Not only broadband users but also dial-up users. A 52kb yahoo home page takes more time to download in IE than the same page in Firefox. Since the time factor rather than download size is important for Dial-up users they also pay the price.

IE sucks in speed. Previously I had downloaded IE Toolbar which provides tabbed browsing. Since then my machine started becoming slow and not only webpages but applications started to open more slowly. After I uninstalled the IE Toolbar things returned to normal. I use IE only to open the dataone usage page which can be opened in IE alone.

My advice to all : Stop using IE and wake up to other browsers. It will save you time and money and keep your usage in check.

Web Ranger

My first guess would be that firefox is caching images, and IE is not.I would advise you to get an unlimited package... don't bother calculating in the realm of kilobits !!!BSNL and other ISPs are probably not "raking in the moolah" purposefully by somehow manipulating the above........ they are raking in the moolah because the Indian consumer is too tolerant and has yet to say that nothing less than 256Kbps unlimited is acceptable...........p.s. you can't uninstall IE...y ou can hide it and/or corrupt it.... you can't uninstall it..... I know... bullsh*t

I use a software called DU meter, that moniters my net usage at the time I am browsing. I monitered my total up/down loads using that while visiting yahoo.co.in both for firefox and IE6. Even though the page size by firefox is shown as 13.04 KB (13356 bytes). But DU meter showed me the following results...Firefox: 274.1 kb download and 24.4 kb upload.IE6 : 185.7 kb download and 15.7 kb upload.Clearly IE has shown better results. Any comments??

Tell u what get a aitel connection if it's available in ur area n forget all these 😀. i haven't worried about my usage in the past 2 years and counting. :lol:

Hello
Firefox also downloads same contents than IE, if you view source and then save in to a text file, then file size will be same as IE. So it just display fake KB size while showing properties.

The download can not depends on Browsers, but yes can depends on their settings. All browsers have to download whatever provided by server (the web page, images etc).

If you have change IE setting to To check stored Page with server, Always, Automatically, Never etc.

And this will affect the download KBs.

You can also increase Temporary Internet Folder Size that will also reduce the Download KBs

Regards

Originally posted by jainnaren@Oct 25 2005, 06:36 PM
Hello
Firefox also downloads same  contents than IE, if you view source and then save in to a text file, then file size will be same as IE. So it just display fake KB size while showing properties.

The download can not depends on Browsers, but yes can depends on their settings. All browsers have to download whatever provided by server (the web page, images etc). 

If you have change IE setting to To check stored Page with server, Always, Automatically, Never etc.

And this will affect the download KBs.

You can also increase Temporary Internet Folder Size that will also reduce the Download KBs

Regards
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the logic of jainaren s acceptable, I am not a browser expert but can come to the conclusion that no browser can adapt any sort of compression , such a thing to happen then the hetrogeneous data present on the server has to be compressed -- encrypted --- and reverse procedure once d/l . imagine the delay it will be causing!!. so a conclusion based on seeing the properties cannot be done a bench mark more appropriate has to be seen

actually most high traffic sites like yahoo and others serve different pages to different browsers for compatibility reasons. opera is seriously served a totally different page. the difference can be in css files and other browser specific content.

i agree with Sushubh. i still can't think how one could survive with just 400 megs a month 🙁

Originally posted by WiZaRd@Oct 26 2005, 12:42 AM
i agree with Sushubh. i still can't think how one could survive with just 400 megs a month 🙁
The answer is simple. Nobody can :angry:

Originally posted by WiZaRd@Oct 26 2005, 12:42 AM
i agree with Sushubh. i still can't think how one could survive with just 400 megs a month 🙁
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You may be right.
400 MB / month. That's 13.3 MB per day.
In six days since I started using Broadband I've used 197 MB. That's 32 MB per day, more than double what I calculated I should be using.
But there's hope.
I've tested the download usage but turning off images in my Firefox browser and the results are good.
I'll try this for another seven days, browsing the same sites and see the usage.
Not much fun without images but until I go for Rs.500 (1GB) plan this is the compromise I'm going to make.

Web Ranger

32 MB per day? bah, i can do about 1 GB per day on a good day... and if I had higher speed I woulda done 2 GB per day ! (im speaking in averages here)

hmmm......this is what JPM said "give me an ferrai... i will beat MS"smae thing applies to megive me unlimited fast connectinon .... i will download 2 GB

A good hosts blocker will save you from downloading lots of Ad Jpegs..

The Hosts File Project http://hostsfile.mine.nu

Now any ad servers will get re-driected to 127.0.0.1

You also need to run a webserver so that any ads get displayed with a jpeg of your choice. Otherwise, the browser will wait and then timeout which will take longer than no hosts file at all. I use one called eDexter since it's so small.

Browse with images off with Opera. If you need them u can get them individually.

Btw IE is pretty fast when you are only looking at one page, but if you need more thats when tabbed browsers can be useful. Use Maxthon if you absolutely have to stick with IE.