I recently ordered a DSL package, and the package that I ordered advertises a downstream speed range of 384kbps to 1.5mbps. My DSL account was activated today. When I tried to use 3rd-party, independent DSL speed tests such as the one on
www.dslreports.com, I found out, to my anger, that my downstream speed is only about 322kbps, way short of the minimum speed advertised. My friend, who has the exact same DSL package from the exact same company, has, on average, a downstream speed of 1 Mbps. And the strange thing is that he's only two houses down the street from my house.
Right now, I am completely baffled as to what might be causing this unusual slowness. My file downloading speed max out at 40 kb per second, but my friend usually downlods at about 120 kb per second on average. So far, the only cause that I can possibly conceive is that we have different ethernet cards. When my friend signed up, he told the company that he did not have an ethernet card, so the company shipped an ethernet card to him, along with the modem and the cables. But since my motherboard has an integrated ethernet port, I thought that it would work fine, and I was told by the company that it would work fine. So that's the only thing I can think of.
If anyone has an idea or suggestion, please tell me.