Trying to download a file (from the Internet using HTTP) using wget on a CentOS or RHEL 5x gets me around 3kBps. However, on that exact same server with the exact same IP, the exact same download using wget on a RHEL 4x gets me around 35kBps.(I have tried reinstalling both OS several times and always get the mentioned speeds.)

Now, both RHEL 4x and RHEL 5x downloads at 10MBps if downloaded from local LAN.

Any clues?

Installing an OS to "fix" D/L speeds is not "the right way", an unnessesary reflex, maybe from working with Mcrsft products. Knowing which hardware is used and comparing kernel, driver and sysctls would be a start. Network-wise you'd want to know what routing and caching devices the machine is behind, what is downloaded, from where and when. How you did your testing is unclear to me: results of testing one download may not be comparable with another download when that part of the 'net is busy plus the machine is under considerable load plus the download gets cached somewhere in between. If you want objective measurements then IMHO you have to take more into account than just "downloading one file" once per install. Maybe you did but it doesn't show in your OP.

Here's a more detailed account:

Scenario 0
OS Installed: RHEL 4 Update 4
IP Address used: 192.168.1.40

Download speed: ~35kBps (http://people.redhat.com/mnagy/squid...el5.x86_64.rpm)
Filesize: 1.6MB

Download Speed: ~10MBps (http://192.168.0.20/xyzfile.rpm)
Filesize: 93MB


Scenario 1
OS Installed: RHEL 5.1
IP Address used: 192.168.1.40
Server used: same as above

Download speed: ~3kBps (http://people.redhat.com/mnagy/squid...el5.x86_64.rpm)
Filesize: 1.6MB

Download Speed: ~10MBps (http://192.168.0.20/xyzfile.rpm)
Filesize: 93MB

You might be inclined to think that my Internet link was slow or the redhat.com website was slow at the time I was testing with RHEL 5.1. That wasn't the case as downloading the http://people.redhat.com/mnagy/squid...el5.x86_64.rpm file using my other servers running RHEL 4U4 all residing on the 192.168.1.0/24 network gave me a constant 35kBps.

What should I say in response to your reply that addresses about one percent of what I talked about in my previous reply?