12 mbps download speed, but programs take a long time to download

[matt965]

For some reason programs and files are taking a very long time to download (about 30 kbps), but youtube plays fine, I can go to any website and troubleshooting shows nothing wrong. I went to speedtest.net and I'm averaging about 12 mbps so files should be downloading fast.

At this point I'm stumped. This PC has a fresh install of Windows 7, up-to-date. It is a Dell OptiPlex 780.

I should have also mentioned that the Network drivers are also up-to-date.

 

[badcrc]

are you using torrents ? you might be throttled

 

[matt965]

I don't use torrents. I set up this PC for a friend since her other one broke down for good. It was working fine when I had it set up with a USB WiFi card. I hooked up the cable at its new home and it started behaving like this. So far, this is happening with Flash Player, Reader, Java, and Shockwave. I'm going to install iTunes later and see if it crawls.

 

[NoelDP]

With downloadslike that, there's a good chance that they are held in a transparent proxy by your ISP, and it's actually from there you're downloading them.
Try getting less-used files for out-of-the-way places as a better test of the transfer speed.

 

[matt965]

Not sure what you mean...
Try getting less-used files?

 

[NoelDP]

Many commonly-downloaded files are held on transparent proxy servers by ISPs to reduce their bandwidth usage. less commonly used files tend to come direct from the source. The exception is anything from a secure site, which will always come direct from source. It all depends how your ISP is structured as to how fast their proxies are.