5M cable internet is not as fast as i think it should be.

400kb/sec is about 48,8kB/sec.
1kbit = 1000bit
8bit = 1Byte
1kByte = 1024Byte
But that isn't near the 5M cable.
Check out some broadband speedtest sites, see what they say.

how long have you had the cable for. I have heard it takes sometimes a week to stabilize. also, a restart of the cable modem could fix this. Get the cable company number from the drawer and call them up. If you are paying for 5Mbits cable you should at least get 80% of that.

You can't reliably gauge your connection speed based on some random speed test site. Your cable company only guarantees your speed from your computer to their network. In other words, you should be able to get 5mbps to their servers, but they can't make any claims for every other website on the Internet. This is pretty much the first line in the script every cable tech will read to you when you say you service is slow. See if they have a particular speed test site that they recommend. If they do and that site's slow, then you might have a better chance of convincing them there's a problem.

I agree with Fred, also alot of websites and such limit the maximum download speed a user can download at.

Your download speed is determined by the speed of the server you are downloading from. 5m cable is the theoretical maximum you can get. But you never will.
Try doing some downloads from microsoft and see what you get. They have fast servers.

[FileUsedToBeHere]

But read me first....

Like senor said, just because you have a 5M connection doesn't mean you will get those download speeds. Servers cap speeds to IP addresses so one person doesn't slow it down for others. This file is a corrupted archive, so it won't work if you try to extract it but it's on my paid webhosting server. This should give you speeds fast enough to test your max speed. My server should supply this file at speeds well over 5M, as I have it configured that way, so the max you get with this file is probably near the max you can get. (I can get about 600Kbps download speed from this server.)

It's 227MBs or soemthing, but just delete it after you download it, as it is corrupt.

.:Edit:.

I am only getting 38oKbps-ish. I'm taking the file down and am going to go play with my server.

I also have a 5M cable connection. I have never seen a consistent dl speed faster than 700KB/sec transfer rate, that includes micosofts servers. If you feel you being screwed by your provider just call them they can do a line check.
I did some research here is a good site for your speed checking http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/