Speed of down and uploads with winME on cable modem

Is anyone else experiencing slow download and uploads on a Winme system with a cable modem and Gontella 0.9.9? Normally I can down load files directly from sites (Microsoft, Gnutella, winzip etc.) at 50 to 80Kbs. When I use Gnotella or Bareshare for that matter the best I can do is 5kbs. People uploading from me can only do 3 t o 5kbs too. I know the upload speed should be slower, and I should not expect the same performance from a p2p network but should it be this bad? When I look at the Gnotella help screen I see 25kbs downloads; I have never gotten above 8kbs with any p2p. Is it my system setup or is it just p2p. I am running a p4 1.7G so I doubt’s it is the hardware. The other thing I am experiencing is that even when Gnotella is download 1 file at 5kbs and 3 people are upload at 3kbs each my internet web page viewing is extremely slow compared to when Gnotella is not running. Again I am using a cable modem 1.5MB down and I think it is 256-upload speed. I am curious is anyone else is experiencing similar problems with broadband connections and if anyone has a fix