How to change Image Loading Order (for Lightbox)

Question

I've got a page with a lot of images (thumbnails). You should be able to expand the images via Lightbox. I need to encourage the browser to load the image in the Lightbox before any other image (thumbnail).

I remember some articles (I can't find anymore) on how to influence the loading mechanism of the browser (use a different subdomain to allow another thread), but I'd like to know whether there might be other options (i.e. without additional subdomains).

To clarify the issue:

Example (how I'd like it to behave)

• I visit the page
• I click on the 3rd picture thumbnail
• The 3rd picture is shown (while the remaining thumbnails are loading)

Example (how it behaves right now)

• I visit the page
• I click on the 3rd picture thumbnail
• A spinning wheel is shown until all thumbnails are loaded
• The 3rd picture is shown

Are there any tutorials/papers/views on this issue?

Answer 1

Just did it with using jQuery $('<img>').attr('src', ...) in my custom queue-manager which limits the browser to load images 1-by-1 thus having the capacity to load additional images that might be showing up on the page (like the one in the lightbox).