Stupid slow downloads and uploads

Question

Help please
Right now I am uploading a file using Fetch. The average speed is 342 bytes/s (no K here, just bytes). That's an hour and a half for a 1.3mb file. It takes 15 seconds to one minute everytime I click on a link on this site. I keep iStat on my desk so I can keep track of my lack of speed. Usually when browsing download average is about 5Kb/s. Exceptions are when I do speed tests ( Verizon 12 KB/s DSL reports 172Kb/s now) and my iStat jumps up to over 100 KB/s momentarily. Keep in mind that I am doing all of this at 3am est -- not exactly prime time. The other thing is that if I use Limewire to download (legal) files, it will maintain over 100 KB/s for an extended period. I have also tried all of the Verizon stuff -- shut down everything for 2 minutes then start the router then computer, no help. This is a new Intel iMac, no firewall, 10.4.10 wired to the DSL router, no firewall, on Verizon 768 mb service. I tried pinging Apple.com (from Florida_ and the range was from 106 ms to 279 ms
Any ideas? this has gotten noticably worse over the past week or 2
G5 Dual 1.8 PPC Firewire Powerbook G3 Emac Apple II Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 broken PC's
G5 Dual 1.8 PPC Firewire Powerbook G3 Emac Apple II Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 broken PC's

Answer 1

check the DNS settings on this DSL router, if you can get to the admin panel.
check the DNS settings in your mac.
find openDNS website, use their numbers, see if this helps.
Go into SysPrefs>Sharing>firewall>Advanced...make sure there are no checks ticked there.
Instead of pinging, use "Traceroute" (use apple.com again) in NetworkUtility, and see if you can tell where it looks like things 'slow down', if you can.
Then repeat that test using IP address 17.254.3.183
Not sure what might have happened in the past week or two, but something [sounds like it] did.