Insight on Internet connection issue?

[BrianG]

Before you go smashing things, I have a couple questions:

1) Is this wired or wireless? If wireless, how is the signal strength? If low, it will affect your bandwidth. If wired, try another cable. If the cable is old/used the NIC could be thottling back the speed to compensate for collisions.

2) Are you using a router? If so, try connecting directly to the modem.