My transfer rates drop radicly while down loading. I am running Win XP home. I have dial up and my rate is about 4200bps. My rates start any where from 12 to 15kb And drop quickly to an average o 1.75bps. What causes this and how do I fix it?

Transfer rates are calculated as "moving averages." Just like the stock market - the last 50 days or last 100 days or last 200 days are averaged together to get the stocks' 50-day moving average (or 100- or 200-). Transfer rates are computed based on how much data has been transferred in the past 60 or 120 or 500 seconds (the actual times may vary, but I hope you understand).

So when you first start transferring, the past 60 seconds has has no data transferred. This means that the computer doesn't have any past data to compare it with. The result is a fast-looking data transfer rate. This just doesn't hold up over time though, as the average data rate for the transfer shows up over time.

It's like getting in your car and driving 60 miles an hour from the start. At first, it looks like you're going real fast. 100 miles into the drive though, and it will seem like you're just puttering along at a snail's pace and want to go faster.