You may want to try downloading files from
http://www.lunarpages.com/speedtest/ as this is hosted on another Lunarpages server and you can use it as a comparision to what speeds you get when downloading from your account to see if they match.
There are many different things that can affect response time / download speeds from a website. Primarily these are Internet connection, content, internet congestion, and physical distance.
Internet connection: Anything on a traceroute that shows something other then a solid connection to a router (or hop) can cause issues with your connection at any point in the data transfer.
Content: Lots of images, large images, video, lots of general content on a single page. Sometimes to speed up response time, it is better to split content among multiple pages then to have lots of content on a single page. Having your website load content from other websites can reduce your sites response times.
Internet Congestion: This can be anything from the number of users who are using the same route you are using, routers along the way having issues (each hop on a traceroute is a separate router the data goes through) to other factors such as viruses that are running on the internet. Best analogy is a highway system. You can be the only one on a highway, and get 60mph, however if you hit traffic, you get slowed down. You can get an idea of how the internet traffic is moving as a whole by going to
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/Physical distance: Physical distance from the server hosting a web page is another factor. For example, if you are in Florida or New York you are as far as you can get (while being in the US) from the server. If you are outside the United States, especially if your connection has to go through Europe, then you may see slower response times/download times.
The further you are away, the more systems you the data is having to go through before it reaches the server. This can cause some delays in response time.
Generally, you need to keep in mind the following when determining download speed:
1. location of yourself in relation to the server.
2. location of yourself to nearest ISP hub
3. # of other customers on that hub on at the same time.
4. # of hops between yourself and the server.
5. processor, and Harddrive speeds of your local computer system (minor in most cases, however there very noticeable differences can occur between a Pentium II 350MHz/256 SDRAM and a Pentium 4 2.8GHz/1Gb DDR in relation to download speeds obtained)
6. processes running on the system at the same time.
What would be recommended, is to review your site over a 72 hour period, do traceroutes to the server when you are experiencing slowdowns and when you are not, and then compare the two to see if there are any differences.
If you can post a link to a file, perhaps other users may be able to connect and advise of their results.
