There are several factors which affect how fast pages appear on your computer screen. Some of these factors are under your control and some are not.

The factors under your control are the speed of your modem and the speed of your computer.

The faster your modem, the faster pages will display. The recommended minimum modem speed is 28.8 kbps (kilobits per second). A modem speed of 33.6 kbps, or even 56 kbps, is now quite common and is highly recommended if you are thinking of purchasing a faster modem.

Your computer itself can also affect the loading speed of Web pages. Computers with more memory (RAM), faster processors and more disk space generally load pages more quickly. Consult the documentation that came with your Business Internet software to find out more about minimum hardware requirements.

The main factor not under your control is the amount of traffic on the Internet. The number of other people accessing the same Web site at the same time as you will affect how fast the Web pages will appear. You will notice this particularly if a particular Web site's computers and connections to the Internet are slow or poorly equipped to handle a lot of traffic.

Last, but not least, remember that people are connecting to the Internet from all of the world's time zones. You will find some times and days are better than others for accessing pages quickly.