New to Broadband,very slow download speeds

[#1]

Hi I am new to broadband and started my plusnet connection Monday evening 10/10/11.
decided to download some old movies from archive.org after midnight Tuesday to not use up my allowance too quickly.
I noticed my download speed on wireless was 90-100kbps which i thought odd as the BT availability test told me i was capable of over 7mbps so surely i should be able to download a file around this speed,or am i being a bit thick?
I tried turning off wireless and plugging in the ethernet cable and my download speed was only 80-90kbps which soon slowed to 54-60kbps.I decided to unplug my phone from the filter and my speed rapidly rose to just over 300kbps but dropped back a bit to around 280kbps.
Wednesday morning 12/10/11 i connected on wireless and downloaded an Opera browser update which ran at 180-200kbps download speed.Had a look at your broadband speed problems page and tried 'mybroadband speed.co.uk.
The test returned results of 6111kbps download speed and 374kbps upload speed.
I did a second test minutes later and got a message 'upload test returned an error while trying to read the upload file'
Tried tests with phone plugged into filter and without (because of change in speed i noticed last night when unplugging phone) but the results were roughly the same each time.
tried downloading another movie from archive.org at 10.26am straight after the speed tests, still only getting around 98kbps download speed on wireless.Turned off wireless and plugged in ethernet cable,restarted file download and download speed was just under 300kbps, tried plugging and unplugging phone into the filter but noticed no change in speed this time.
Surely if tests are showing my download speeds as 6-7mbps i should be able to download at around these speeds?
ps I tried the BT speed test at http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ and got these results -
test results (BT speed test) performed at 11.50am 12/10/11
-----------------------------------------------------------
Test1 comprises of two tests
1. Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
Download  Speed
5734 Kbps

Download speed achieved during the test was - 5734 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 2000-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7640 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 443 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 6740 Kbps

2. Upstream Test:  -provides background information.
Upload Speed
346 Kbps
>Upload speed achieved during the test was - 346 Kbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 443 Kbps
------------------------------------------------------------
Below are my router stats
DSL Connection
Link Information
Uptime: 1 day, 13:09:12
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 984 / 7,956
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 443 / 7,640
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 89.75 / 1.90
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.5 / 20.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 27.0 / 45.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 21.5 / 7.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 78 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 385,856 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 2,759 / 17,053
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 44 / 15,488
---------------------------------------------------------------
Current line speeds result below
Telephone number:
01142337325
Phone exchange:
WADSLEY BRIDGE
Estimated line speed:
5Mb (This may vary between 4Mb and 8Mb)  - Checked on 2011-10-03 18:21:18
Current line speed:
6.5 Mb
---------------------------------------------------------------
Plusnet told me when i signed up that i was capable of 7-14 meg download speeds,I know im not always going to those speeds but the BT test seems to be telling me im only capable of 2-7 meg download speeds? is this correct?
pps
so far i haven't turned off the router since first set up should i try this? if so how long do i leave it off before
switching back on? i notice your own advice at http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/speed_basics.shtml
says to reset the router a few times in the first 10 days.
Any help appreciated, also do you need my plusnet user name or any other details?
Apologies for the essay 

[#2]

Hi dave5963,
Firstly, welcome to Plusnet and our community forums. I'd say leave it for the first 10 days and see how the speed goes, we can look into it once that period is up. With regard to your download speeds, are you sure the figures you gave aren't KBps rather than Kbps?
Jojo

[#3]

The figures do suggest there is a mix up of Kb (bits) and KB (bytes) as said. You didn't say what you were using to download but most web browsers display KB / sec and not Kb / sec.
That said a 7mbps connection should be able to download over 700 KB / sec.
The real problem is that the archive.org site is free and won't have a lot of money to spend on bandwidth. Once you divide the available speed amongst yourself and other users who are downloading at the same time then 100 KB / sec (or less) is not unreasonable.

[#4]

Hi Jo
Thanks for the welcome and the quick reply, I should have checked back earlier sorry.
Yes Sorry I did mean KBps or kilobytes per second not kilobits. I will leave it till the ten days is up and keep an eye on speeds,I'm new to broadband (got put off for ages with all the silly review sites that have nothing but negative reviews should have taken the leap ages ago  )
Thankyou spiderwheels, yep it was KBps,Doh!
I downloaded the  mpeg 4 files using the built in downloader on my Opera browser rather than streaming them if that's what you meant.
Would i get a slower download speeds from the archive site even if my download speed was high? is this just what to expect from a busy site like archive?  I'm new to broadband so not familiar with what speeds to expect when downloading files.
I did download an update to the Opera browser this morning and the Opera download tab indicated the speed of download as 180-200 KBps. I expected to be getting download speeds in the megabytes rather than kilobytes?
Thanks for the reply's 

[#5]

Another dumb question 
Spiderwheels you say a 7mbps connection will download at  700 KB / sec , is that the kind of speed i should expect for downloading any files?
Not had broadband before so not familiar with what to expect.
Thanks for any help
Regards Dave.

[#6]

Not unless you are on the Pro addon - see this http://usergroup.plus.net/prodcomp1.php

[#7]

Hi oldjim
Thanks for the reply that page did help but im not sure what it means by line speed on the chart, does that mean if my connection as indicated by a speed test is say 5-7 mbps that i should be able to download a file at that speed when the chart indicates line speed eg between midnight and 4am or is that never the case? should i only expect to download files at 200 to 300 kilobytes per second?

[#8]

The actual bits get sent to your computer at sync speed - because that what the technology does. But the bits sent have to include lots of overhead information to ensure information is routed to the intended place, any transmission errors are detected and all data is received. The theoretical maximum useful speed this gives is 88.2% of sync speed, reflected as IP Profile (on 21CN). Further to that are overheads for managing the connection and correcting transmission errors, which can take up another 5% or so. Hence downloading at 83% of sync speed is good.
Taking 80% as a convenient round number, download speed in kBps would be 80 divided by 8 times sync speed in kbps. Hence 7500kbps sync speed would typically give 750kBps download speed.

[#9]

Hi spraxyt
Thanks for the answer, im getting my head round it now, still learning and broadband speeds can be a bit confusing to first time users