Is the connection speed a ranking factor for Search Engines?! I am asking this , because Alexa is also reporting the connecting speed rank! and for my website I get something like Connection : Very Slow (94% of the internet websites are faster then this one) Does google use this factor also?!
I don't think it counts, and even if it does, it must be minimal. Having said that, it's important to ensure your site is not down at some instances when crawlers come and pay your site a visit. Otherwise they'd think your site is unstable and may not visit there for quite some time.
Well, if it takes a long time for the crawlerbot to access your site, you might not a get a full crawl. PLUS...which is more important, is if it does take a while to load your site, I don't think you users appreciate it too much and might be leaving your site even before it loads. I'd work on loading speed. Get the images down and use more CSS and stay away from FLASH, etc...