i followed the instructions posted on another thread regarding setting up limewire and how to speed things up. it seems to work a lot better now.
Also i think it has a lot to do with my isp because i've noticed that when it is early evening in the Uk and lots of people are on the net it slows down. When they go to bed here and it becomes early evening in the US as more people come online over there it seems to speed right up which makes me come to the conclusion that it must be due to my isp becoming very busy as it is BT who supply my service.
I will monitor the situation over the next few weeks and see what happens!
thanks for all your help in trying to resolve this issue for me

regards
Kev Christie.