That suggests filewalls or other upstream blocks, like ISP filtering or throttling.

The modem report would be correct if that is the case, since reported speed is not the same as declared speed.

You can have a fast broadband connection to the web, but if your gnutella connections are blocked by whatever, then maybe you can only connect to gnutella like a modem.

A good test would be to get someone with a known decent connection to Direct Connect with you. The better test would be to sign up for broadband with a competitor who explicitly allows filesharing.

btw--I whenever I noticed any slowing of the network, I bugged my ISP. With a clear connection to gnutella, I would have to say the network works much better than it did a year ago. Your experience (an a few other of the more than 1.5 million users) obviously differs.

Best wishes tracking down the block. It's a pain.