Low throughputs, though, do not necessarily mean a dodgy telephone line. From the telephone company's point of view, they are ideal for customers who install a second line, except, it seems that they typically limit line speeds, often to around 26,400bps. Private telephone switching systems, such as those found in offices and hotels, can also limit the maximum line speed. Processing power Since HTML pages contain formatting information mixed in with plain text, they require processing to turn them into the formatted pages that appear on your browser. A faster processor and more memory will speed up this processing.
Some browsers are faster than others.
Changing to a 16-bit version of Netscape Navigator returned 5 seconds. Tests at lower DTE and line rates, though, produced similar times. If the 'Internet' is busy the test page will not load as quickly. Try the tests at 'off-peak' times such as late at night or early on the morning. Repeating the test five or ten times at intervals should give you an idea of how busy the Internet is.