kikjim

i had in the past the same question and the answer was that the big consume comes from p2p file sharing programs such as bittorrent or emule file sharing (hope you know about this kind of programs to better understand) and since they require first to upload before someone can download a file this is some kind of cut from the roots of the downloads . i'm not a knower of technical details but this was the answer.

after surfing some time on the internet i have now the free tcp optimizer which makes all the job of the paid programs for free (excepting the interface but who cares...)

also take into account that usually the upload speed lower than the download speed

if you'll pay only the difference could be a deal. i mean to make an exchange and pay only the difference

always running on high settings will burn your card

If there is a big difference between what speed do you have in the contract and th real speed, you can use a software like http://www.softspecialist.com/iSpeed-for-Windows-2218/iSpeed-for-Windows.htm. If your connection is ADSL, it worths to give a try to http://www.softspecialist.com/DSL-Speed-2070/DSL-Speed.htm