Internet speed

You may be misreading the information in Safari's download window. The figure it reports is KBytes per second, not Kbits/sec. 320 KBytes/sec is approximately 2.56 Mbits/sec which is close to the 2.8 Mbits/sec of your speed test.

How much time did that take? My estimate is around 4 minutes or so. Is that actually the time it took?

I suggest you download a similarly large file from support.apple.com/downloads/ via Safari and note the download rate indicated in Safari's download manager window.

Your transfer rzte was 360 KBytes/sec or roughly 2.8 Mbits/sec which is what your service speed is. Your download rate is in line with your service rate. You've simply misunderstood the difference between a service rate measured in bits/sec and a download rate measured in bytes/sec. There are 8 bits in a byte. If you divide 2,800,000 bits/sec (your service rate) by 8 bits/byte you get a download speed of 350,000 bytes/sec or 350 KBytes/sec.

The only way to get faster speed is to purchase a faster service rate from your provider.

If you're in chicago, and getting down 2.8 Mb/s, sounds like you're on a 5 Mb/s down plan. The big cities usually have a better availability of higher speeds (even though US internet speed is shameful imo). Somewhere near 7-10 Mb/s should be around the norm, if I'm not mistaken. Definitely inquire ATT.

Wait, why are you downgrading? I thought you needed more speed? Also 720kbps, is pretty slow for nowadays. At minimum, 5 mbps should be adequate. Not only for internet surfing, downloading, but also take into consideration streaming, which needs a lot of bandwidth.

Oh, ic. Well, keep your eye on the speed throughout different times of the day as well. Higher traffic during peak hours, influence your speed.

An easy way to check up and down speed:

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://www.speakeasy.net/