I recently went to a cable modem from 56k, but my downloads are not much faster than with the 56k. Everything seems to be configured for the new modem. Any ideas?

In order to download fast - you need other people to allow fast uploads.

If you are downloading from someone who has a modem connection, it doesn't matter how fast your conenction is, it still has to pass through their modem.

If LimeWire can find multiple sources for a file it will swarm the file which should give increased download speeds - but only occasionally will you be able to download a file at the limit of your cable speed.

You can also try getting several files at the same time.

But in short - there's nothing wrong, that's just the way it is.

Mark