heres i convo i had with the ever helpfull aol live help.
17:57:13 AOL UK Support Welcome to AOL Live Help. How might I be of service to you?
17:58:37 You hi, i am on adsl max, after the 10 days i was syncing at a rate of 4448kbps, giving me a download speed of 4mbps, it has gotten slower however, and today it has gone down to 3040kbps....... giving me a download speed of 2.5 mbps???? wtf is going on some sort of cap imposed by aol?
18:00:23 Sana E. Rabbi I can see why that is a valid concern, let me help you with that.
18:00:57 You my SNR is a massive 16.5!! which would obviously suggest my connection is fine, and it can handle more then 3040kbps as the norm is 6 to have a stable connection!
18:02:32 Sana E. Rabbi How long have you been experiencing this issue?
18:02:56 You it started around 2 days after the 10 day "trial period"
18:03:13 You which is like 2-3 weeks ago
18:03:23 You but i have never had speed as slow as it is now today
18:04:51 Sana E. Rabbi Please don't worry, I am sending you a very helpful link, however I am also sending you an email for further assistance, I request you to please try all the steps given in them and definitely your issue will get resolved.
18:05:23 Sana E. Rabbi Most of the time, a slow broadband connection is due to background processes that also use the connection, such as spyware. AOL provides a free spyware protection utility that can check for and remove known spyware files at AOL Keyword Spyware.
Save or print our 'Stay Connected' manual and keep it to hand in case of any connection problems
http://www.aolsvc.co.uk/help/broadband/stayconnected.pdf
18:05:43 You by the way i hope they are not thing slike please reinstall drivers restart machine etc
18:05:56 You becuase i work in ict support, and work with computers for a living
18:06:15 You so i know what i am doing and it is not a problem on my end its a problem on the bt side/aol
18:06:57 Sana E. Rabbi Please try all the steps and if the problem persist please come back to live help, we are here to assist you always.
18:07:02 Sana E. Rabbi For more information you can always visit AOL keyword "discover AOL".
18:07:29 You i know they wont help me
18:07:33 You just looking at them now
18:07:40 You it isnt my computer
18:07:49 You it is the phone line/bt side of it
18:08:13 You nothing on any1's machine would cause them to sync at a slower speed for no apparent reason
18:08:57 You to me it looks like the bt "bras" has imposed an incorrect setting on the line
18:09:10 You making my line sync at a slower speed then it is capable of
18:10:41 Sana E. Rabbi Please try all the steps and if the problem persist please come back to live help, we are here to assist you always.
18:11:02 You i dont like wasting my own tim
18:11:10 You doing things i know for a fact wont help
18:11:14 Sana E. Rabbi And if you have tried all AOL recommended on steps on live help then i would advice you to please contact our technical support at 0870 320 2020
18:11:35 You even with virus's and spyware it wuddnt change the sync speed of my modem
18:11:46 You suggesting it is really really dumb
18:14:24 You is there anyway for you to contact bt, and have them reset my line to the "10 day trial mode" thing again?
after that i got no reply... i guess they really wanted me to try and restart my computer....... cant believe the cheek of it, they gave me a step by step guide on how to restart my machine......