download speeds are weird

I doubt it! You are probably just getting whatever your traffic contract with your DSL service provider allows. Read your traffic contract. I would bet that you either have a UBR (Unspecified Bit Rate) contract or a VBR (Variable Bit Rate) contract. If UBR, the contract will specify only a PCR (Peak Cell Rate) which is totally unguaranteed. This is call best effort and you get whatever rate can be provided at the time. Higher paying customers with different traffic contracts could prempt your traffic (this is call QoS - Quality of Service).

If you have VBR, you have a PCR, and SCR (Sustainable Cell Rate) and an MBS (Maximum Burst Size). Without trying to get into all the specifics since there are multiple types of VBR service, this is higher priority than UBR and the SCR is the only rate you are truly guaranteed to get at most times. You can get the PCR for short intervals (this is controlled by the MBS value and another parameter called CDVT - Cell Delay Variation Tolerance).

Long story short, you may be just getting the rate of your traffic contract now. Note that your upstream (transmit) and downstream (receive) rates/contract are different too.

Is your DSL modem a wireless modem?

 

No I understand just fine. You are missing the point of me asking about your traffic contract. When you first purchased your DSL service there could have been fewer subscribers using the bandwidth of your service providers DSLAM. If your contract is UBR, you may not always get the maximum throughput rate that the trainup rate of your modem would possibly allow. Especially over a longer interval of time. I'm not saying that this is what you are experiencing. I'm just saying that is how DSL works. You get a traffic contract with a lot o vague wording. They like to say things like up to xxxMbps. But that is not a guaranteed rate. It is a peak that you could possible get for a short duration depending on bandwidth availability.

What are your upstream and downstream trainup rates right now?

You cannot compare a bitrate test to what you may download from at some other site. The path to the other site could have delays and the site could be busy too.

If your rates at the test site are acceptable, it just seems to verify that there are no problems with your connection over that short interval of time.

 

Your DSL modem has an upstream and a downstream pathway. At power up the modem will train to a specific rate both upstream & downstream. The rate it obtains will be based upon how it is provisioned (by your ISP) and also on the phyiscal quality of your phone line (noise and loop length will impact trainup rate in a negative fashion). Sometimes even when already on a modem will retrain to lower rates if bit errors are being seen. This will keep occurring until the modem is running at a rate where signal to noise ratio (SNR) settings are being met. Training rate is directly related to your throughput rates but there is significant overhead that will reduce the payload (your download information) rate from what the training rate is.

You may or may not be able to connect into your DSL modem to view these parameters. Your ISP may not have given you the login and password information to connect to your DSL modem to see this. You can get some information about your modem and menu selections ...etc from links like below:

http://members.verizon.net/~res08lyg/6100.htm
http://www.lava.net/support/Westell_6100_DSL_Modem_Installation_Guide
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/6096

Then perhaps where ever you are downloading from when you say it is slow, is the problem. Or the pathway and number of hops from you to the site are the problem. Either way this does not sound like a topic for the malware forum.

 

Good news!