That's SA for ya. I'm getting a solid 5.5mbps to my computer. That's not the rated speed of the line. The line is rated to 16mbps. I know I could get a lot closer to the rated speed if I got rid of my 10-base T hardware firewall. I'm doing that at some point. I have the new firewall here ready to install and I'm expecting to get much higher speeds once I swap that in.
Less network equipment will give you a higher speed. So if you can plug directly into the router then that will get you a better speed if possible. With rated speeds of 384kbps you will probably see a much slower actual speed. As with my connection, the ISP tells me it's a 16mbps line so the fact that I only get 5.5 shows you the sort of ratios of difference to expect. Even after I swap to my new firewall I am only expecting to see speeds of 2 or 3 mbps higher, still nowhere near 16mbps.
That's interesting, and unfortunate. You must have some hardcore firewalls. I've never had an issue, (except when my D-Link router finally went out), to where the router slowed down the speeds that much, with firewall enabled. I get my full 8mbps down, 1mbps up, through the router, with NAT and the works enabled. Although it doesn't sound like much, I'll never hit the throughput with gaming and what not. Anyways, it really sounds like the ISP is capping the speeds. Over here, the ISP is regulated by government, or state, based on the county. One of the ISP's in the county next to me, (I think Cox or Comcast Cable?) cap their speeds, with much dispute, when their customers are consistantly using high bandwidth, such as gaming, or downloading files on a regular basis, even if they haven't surpassed their speeds that they are paying for. I've heard AT&T were or are "sharing" bandwidth, giving their customers a few MB/s a month.
