This's a little tweak that works for most XP users. Microsoft reserves 20% of your bandwidth for their own use in case you're downloading their updates etc.

That's 20%. You can't simply let 20% of your bandwidth be wasted! Let's get it back then...

1. Click start.

2. Click on Run.

3. Enter "gpedit.msc" without the " " ('gpedit' or 'Global Policy Editor' is used to set and change system preferences and user rights).

4. Now goto "Local Computer Policy" -> Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Network-->QOS Packet Scheduler.

5. Double click on "Limit reservable Bandwidth". Click on the explain tab for an explanation of it.

6. Now, enable it and set it to zero.

7. Done...You get back that 20% reserved bandwidth.