When downloading tv shows from itunes, it normally takes about 20 mins an episode. For some reason for the last few days it is taking over 2 hours.

I know the download speed varies from one wireless connection to the next, but is there any particluar reason (ie Increased download traffic at this time of year!).

I plugged my laptop via the ethernet cable, so i'm not even wireless now and it's still taking an age.

Fairly new laptop, plenty of space, no issue before. What's going on?

Oh, I ran a test (not sure how good reliable it is), suggested my bandwidth 858kbps - which i guess is pretty rubbish. But why?

If you've just done your download, the evenings are the slowest time of day for band-width (as everyone goes on-line having got home from work). It picks up around midnight & is then quite reasonable until evening the next day.

You'll never get your foot down in rush hour traffic

Sounds like he is in a skoda on a country lane in a hurricane.

So it really is just 'rush hour traffic' for downloads. I thought i was the only sad effer in the world not going out tonight!!

Thing is, i always download this time of night, have done for a couple of years but never had problems before!

It may be worth running speed tests at different times/days for the next week or so to get a better understanding of the max & min speeds you're getting from your broadband supplier.

If they're consistently low or at least well below the (up to) speeds your package offers then it may be worth considering a switch to another supplier (the speed you've quoted isn't really acceptable for someone that uses their connection to just browse the internet, let alone downloading audio/video files)...