[Sephiroth]

CPCUK has confirmed what I've said in a few places about speedtest.net reliability.

Of late, I've found the London hosts to be unreliable when compared in the same systematic way as CPCUK has described.

I must admit I hadn't alighted on Lancaster, but Hull was always (and still is for me) pants. Until now, my benchmark has been Paris, they've added Massy (also OK) and Lancaster, because of the low ping time, I now trust.

So it can't be Flash. Flash isn't CPU intensive judging by the CPU graphs on my dual-core.

So I agree with CPCUK's conclusion that actual downloads are the acid test. But you have to find a site that can dispense at the full speed.