ok, so I set up a new user and restarted.
Downloaded a fresh new copy of LW from the LW website at an average speed of 60K.

Installed it and ran it. Tried downloading from Magnetmix but download speeds never exceeded 1K.

I'm completely lost now.
I installed OS X Jag from the original CD.
Download speeds from the internet are fine. It must be something with LW !

Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh