I have allways noticed that when i START a download it start off downloading at a very high rate and emidiatly starts working its way down to a comfortable level... Ive noticed this on any internet connection. when you first start a download its a 900 kbs and then over about 10 seconds it works its way down to a cumfy 350 or less. I wonder if this is actually the server cutting it down or if its windows. Certainly I'm not the only one to notice this. it WOULD be great to KEEP it where it starts off, Fat chance though...The first few seconds of the download counter are artifically raised.  I believe that the download starts caching before you have INDICATED where it should go.  But the counter only starts after you have clicked the last relevant "save/okay" button.  So a few hundred KBs may have donwloaded already once the counter starts - hence it takes a while for the average download SPEED to settle down.

This is just what I deduce from years of watching these counters.  I may be wrong.