Turn away from that S#!+ and don’t look back. Get Firefox.
Probably your downloads are slow because Obama and the NSA are monitoring ever data bit coming over your bandwidth. LOL! Project Eschelon.
Ccleaner,then look at what is left. First.
Maybe it’s your service provider. Do you have another computer online to compare with?
It’s bizarre to have your upload speed so much faster than your download speed like that. Is it possible you have something continually downloading? Possibly a virus or just a program you always keep running?
Verify that no one’s stealing your bandwidth, first.
Maybe check your system monitor and see if you have a lot of incoming packets even when you aren’t browsing the internet.
It doesn't sound as if that's the trouble you're having, though.
Router - wired or wireless?
Test results from a web-based speedtest - exact download results.
Have you tried any other browsers?
Prolly have to wait til Moday for an appointment but call the cable company - last time I saw a mystery like this it was the cable modem failing ... Good luck! ;-)
The easiest way to proceed, divide the problem.
There are enough brosers available that you can download and speed test. Once you do that you should know if it’s IE or your system.
If it’s the browser, switch. If the browser changes does not restore the speed, it’s WinXP, back out the last changes-updates.
It’s been years since I’ve used XP (using Win7 7048 64bit RC and its working like a charm) so I don’t remember if XP allows you to do this, but you might try rolling back the updates (or do a system restore to a restore point prior to the updates.
Win7 automatically creates restore points before installing updates, I don’t recall if XP does. Doing this will help confirm or eliminate the update as a cause of your problem. If you have IPv6 enabled you might try disabling that, just to see if it makes a difference.
Here is a good program that optimizes your system for uploads/downloads.
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
SG TCP Optimizer
TCP Optimizer
Description: The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection. There is no installation required, just download and run.
The program can aid both the novice and the advanced user in tweaking related TCP/IP parameters in the Windows Registry, making it easy to tune your system to the type of Internet connection used. The tool uses advanced algorithms, and the bandwidth*delay product to find the best TCP Window for your specific connection speed. It provides for easy tuning of all related TCP/IP parameters, such as MTU, RWIN, and even advanced ones like QoS and ToS/Diffserv prioritization. The program works with all current versions of Windows, and includes additional tools, such as testing average latency over multiple hosts, and finding the largest possible packet size (MTU).
The TCP Optimizer is targeted towards broadband internet connections, however it can be helpful with tuning any internet connection type, from dialup to Gigabit
Sometimes turning off your cable/dsl modem for 30 seconds and turning it back on works. Also, if it is a separate unit, your router should be cold booted as well.
You likely got the new MS security patch which has to scan every data file you download. The problem is that the scan is so slow.
You can delete the patch, and make sure you have Norton 360 or another really good anti-virus program. I think Norton has a fix for it, and takes over the MS patch’s work.Its a lot faster.
Try pulling the power off of your cable modem and/or router, wait five seconds, and plug the power back in.
Several possibilities, but you didn’t post enough info ...
1. Could be your virus program. What is it? Has it upgraded recently? Does it run continuous checks?
I finally dumped AVG Home a few weeks ago, because, like McAfee and ZoneAlarm and TrendMicro, it became glutware. The last update slowed my system to a crawl and caused several program conflicts. Since I upgraded MS XP latest recommended updates at the same time, I wasn’t sure which was causing all the conflicts. I went with Avast Home, and, so far, it has been great. It doesn’t use near the system resources.
2. It would be something you picked up via some web program. I contracted some kind of ‘program’ that ran as a system program. (It may have been a part of the AVG upgrade or MS XP upgrade or Java upgrade or something else.). Anyway, before dumping AVG, I restored my system to a previous configuration, and that ‘program’ running in memory was no longer there. (I use clonegenius to image ‘good’ OS partition operations. That way, if I need to ‘step back’, I can upload the last best OS image — that saves all of my settings, etc. Clonegenius or similar image programs is a MUST HAVE. Google it.)
3. Recently my Cable Co started doing area upgrades. The internet connections have gone from fast to near-zilch. It was sporadic for about 2 weeks. They must have finally gotten things changed over, because my interest has been good for a week.
If your service provider is a cable company, they can and do put bandwith [speed, actually] filters on the line; and then try to sell you upgraded service.
Those internet speeds sound pretty good to me. Are you using an older computer?
If your computer is several years old you might be having problems with flash advertisements hogging your CPU. You can check the CPU useage with Windows Task Manager. If that is the problem, you can use a Firefox add-on called Flashblock.