Configuring for faster downloads?

Hello everyone.

Please bear with me, as I am new to all this & this is my first post. I have been reading everything I can in order to get this up & running as best I can, but I still seem to be having problems downloading at any speed over 8KB/s for longer than a few seconds at a time, which means that I have been waiting to download some stuff for days on end. Sometimes the download section just does nothing at all, but the upload section looks like its on speed!!

I have a 3.2ghz HyperThreading 160gb hard drive with 512mb ram Dell PC.

I'm running Limewire Pro 4.4.0 on a 1mg connection with a 1152 kbps downstream speed & a 288 kbps upstream speed & a fast latency? (I checked my router settings). I have a Voyager 205 router & I believe that I have configured both the router (I have given myself a static IP & put NAT rule to use 6346) & the windows firewall (XP) to use the 6346 port. Limewire also listens on this port (should I change this port?).

I have followed all instructions that I've found in the forum & so I have managed to allow other users to direct connect to me & upload at speeds up to 10 - 13KB/s for the short time it seems it takes them to upload. I have set the upload bandwidth to 27.12KB/s with max uploads at 3 & slots at 10, and the download bandwidth to unlimited 100% with max downloads at 20. I show only 4* results & only speeds over cable/DSL or over. I don't use the resume/find sources button & instead stop the download & search again. In fact, as far as I can tell, I'm doing everything I should but I'm frustrated at the fact that I don't seem to be able to download as quick as other people can upload. Is there something else I can do?

Also, Limewire seems to disconnect frequently even though I have PRO which is supposed to be Turbo Charged all the time. Do you think that it's my ISP or Limewire?

Sorry to have gone on a bit, but I have tried but I still feel that there is something I've missed.

Can anyone help?

Have I given enough, or too much info?