Internet speed test says DL speed: 18.79Mbps where as actuall speed is ~400kbps

[Flare]

...and streaming is pretty slow! To the point where i have to pause it for a while before i can play it, i had to do this for the following video:
"Video info: DIVX, 994 kbps, 640x318, 23.976 fps
Audio info: MP3, 144 kbps, 48000 Hz"

Like the title says, when i was downloading before i got an average speed which must have been between 400-450Kbps. This can't be right can it? I'm guessing that if it isn't, it must be to do with a lot of crap on my PC. If that's the case it's no worry because i am reformatting soon. Oh and i forgot to mention, i'm using a wireless adaptor but it can't be down to this as the signal strength is 60%+ and the link quality is 95%-100%. It also says Speed: TX 90Mbps RX 120Mbps.

Oh and this is my PCs spec so it can't be down to hardware:
G0 Stepping Q6600
BFG GTX 280 OC
Biostar Tpower I45
2x Corsair 2GB XMS2
Samsung F1 640Gb

Thanks for any help in advance,
Flare.

 

[ncjok]

If you can get 18+ Mbps throughput from a speed test site (is this true for http://www.speedtest.net and http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk ?) and nowhere close from somewhere else then I would suspect either a) overloaded hardware running the site you're streaming video from, b) lack of bandwidth at the other end, or c) a routing problem between yourself and the video streaming site.

 

[Aod]

If you can get 18+ Mbps throughput from a speed test site (is this true for http://www.speedtest.net and http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk ?) and nowhere close from somewhere else then I would suspect either a) overloaded hardware running the site you're streaming video from, b) lack of bandwidth at the other end, or c) a routing problem between yourself and the video streaming site.

indeed.

OP, Try downloading a large file from a very good server (like something from microsoft.com) and see what speeds you get.