Slow Download Speeds

[Social Enemy]

Here is my little problems with my very slow download speeds.

I am using Time Warner as my ISP and I'm signed up with the package to get 1.5 mb/s. Now I know there is a lot of things that can go on that will prevent me from downloading at that speed. However, no matter what source I'm downloading from, the fastest speed I can get is 170 kb/s.

Here is some info on my systems and what I've done:
I have three computers, all running XP home sp2. I have tried each of them plugged directly into the cable modem and all of them get the same download speed.
I have tried downloading from multiple clients and have used various programs (IE, firefox, p2p type programs), and all get the same speed.
I have completely disabled all firewalls/antivirus software and get the same result
I have even completely reloaded a system and before I installed anything, I plugged it into the modem and got the same speed.

Here are my 2 conclusions about this issue. I believe one of these is causing this issue:
1) All of my systems come with sp2 pre-installed, so something with sp2 is causing this.
2) When I call my ISP, they have me go to speedtest.net and according to that, it shows that my downloading speed is 1506 kb/s. So that site is lying and I'm actually not downloading at that speed and my ISP doesn't want to own up to the problem.


I would appreciate any info or advice on how I can go about getting this resolved (like something that can be modified in the registry for sp2 to fix this or somebody tell me that speetest.net is not a reliable site to go to for speed tests and why, so I can go back to my ISP with this info). I just seems I'm paying a lot of money to my ISP for nothing. The apartment that I'm in is under contract with Time Warner for internet service, so I'm stuck with them as being my ISP.

Thanks

[CCT]

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:...lnk&cd=4&gl=ca

[NooNoo]

Social Enemy it helps also to measure a known download from a fast server like this one Download the small file and time it - it should take around 30 seconds. If it does, you have the correct speed and it is a Kb/s vs KB/s problem. If it slower, how much slower?

When you are downloading this file, connect the pc directly to the modem on the first test. If successful, connect the PC back to the router, but have the other pcs off... there will be a slight drop off in speed (but not much). Post the results.

[slgrieb]

Social, I see no reason to distrust the source you used to test your download speed, but you could try this one as well. Naturally, you want to choose the Dallas server.

There could be many reasons why you aren't getting a download speed faster than 170 K. Some sites cap the bandwidth available to individual downloaders. Depending on the sites you are using, you might also find that your ISP caps your bandwidth. This is a pretty gray area, but some ISP's do this; I don't know about Time-Warner's policies here.

So, one of the other helpful things you could do would be to post some info about the sites you're downloading from.