i have a 2.3 mb broadband connection yet every time i try and download a song or anything i seem to always get an average download speed of 5 - 15 KB/s. i have friends who have slower broadband connections and are averaging 100 - 250 KB/s. Can somebody please help?

Try manual port forwarding if your using an external router, turn off your windows firewalldoesnt do much anyway hackers have it sussed and route through any software firewalls you are using,for example zonelabs or whatever.antivirus software usually has them too,yeah firewalls are usually the issue.

and aol platium comes with a pretty good firewall