I am on a DSL line which exceeds a T1 in download capactiy (2.544mbp/s down and 1.544mbp/s upload, reserved) and when downloading from most servers I get 100k-300k/sec...

I use Gnotella(mostly looking for movies), and regardless of the person I try to download from, 19 out of 20 are perma-busy and that one person that isn't busy, I get a download rate under 4kbp/s, sometimes as slow as 500 BYTES a second!

And it says they are on a DSL or even a T3...

What gives?

Probably a lot of people were downloading from him/her at the same time.

I find stopping the search after a download has started helps a lot,and even disconnecting from the network,this is a last resort as obviously then noone can upload from me making me a freeloader which I most certainly am not.