John,

I was on a different computer earlier and didn't have time to elaborate.

When you type or click on a link, the server gets a request for the html code at that link. It feeds the code back to your browser which deciphers it and puts it together on your screen. When you see an image in a message on The Chip Board, it is not necessarily the server that runs the chip board that is feeding that image to you. In fact, in most cases it is not.

Part of that html code I mentioned earlier that this server sends your browser is the ADDRESS of the photos you see and information on how and where to place them on your screen. Your browser then makes a seperate request to the address where the image is stored and asks for the photo.

After the data for the photo is received, your browser constructs the photo and puts it in the page. So, if the photo is showing up quite a bit slower than the rest of the page, it will usually be because the server that holds the image is slow returning the image, or that you have a slower connection between you and that server.

Greg