Whats the name of your cable company(Adelphia, Comcast, ect).
Try downloading a file from this site:
http://www.magnetmix.com/audio2.shtml
Just click on download and it'll start in LW. See what kind of speeds you get. It should d/load pretty fast. If it only d/loads at 1KB then your isp is probably shaping your bandwidth.
Also do a speed test and see what your speed should be. LW shows speeds in KiloBytes, don't confuse them with Kilobits which are smaller.
http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/speedtest/