There's one of two possibilities 1) the source you are downloading your files from are located on slow connections or are overloaded. Your download speed is pretty much determined by the person you are downloading from. You should try to download a file with many sources. You also haven't talked about your connection speed. What is your Upload/Download?

2) Goto a site that gives free bandwidth tests and test your bandwidth. The test results will appear in Kbps this is normal for communications, file sharing programs use KB so 5KB is 40kbps perhaps the person you are downloading from is using a modem or is serving multiple users.

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Lee Evans, President
LeeWare Development
http://www.leeware.com