The cat5 shouldn't be the problem. If the signal is too degraded then that would cause a slow net connection, but you say that another node is fine as far as speed. Do you have a comparable computer? (In GHz, RAM, NIC, etc?) You can go to dslreports.com, run the speed test on both computers in your room at the same time, and compare the results. If they are the same, then the problem is something on your computer (program hogging the net, virus comming with its server, etc.). That's one way to narrow it down. Try that and get back to me - I'll see if I can be of more assistance. Hope this helps, Good luck

Tell me about the two computers. A network speed difference can be caused by a lot of different factors, sometimes unrelated to the networking hardware. If for example he has more RAM than your system, or you have flaky RAM sticks, there could be an issue inside your PC which is causing dropped packets. If both systems are essentially the same, then we need to check networking hardware. Swap cables, swap ports on the router, swap out the Ethernet plug if possible (add a second network card and disable the onboard Ethernet if necessary). While I sometimes use shielded CAT5 for extremely long cable runs, even unshielded CAT5 usually needs to be run directly across an electromagnet before EMI becomes a problem, which could still be happening if any of your monitors are CRTs and cables are running across the back of them. Routers sometimes do traffic management and the ports could be misrouted. If you have access to router setup, look in there and see if maybe your IP address (even if assigned through DHCP) has somehow been throttled or limited within the router itself. If any filesharing is going on (you don't have to say anything in public if you don't want to), filesharing programs tend to hog bandwidth away from other systems on the same network segment (i.e., a set of computers plugged into the same router). Some filesharing programs have the option for throttling bandwidth. If this is going on, you may want to throttle back upload bandwidth in the filesharing application to 80% or less of max upload speed. Most Internet traffic is bi-directional and as such if filesharing is hogging all the upload speed a slowdown in download speed will occur at the same time. If after checking hardware and network applications you discover no problems, then we are in the realm of viruses, spyware, and other malware. Quite possibly your computer could already be a zombie, constantly downloading something for a malware company and thus having no download bandwidth for your use.