said by inMaryland :did not say it was an exhaustive test.. I will keep trying both methods of downloading from easynews (NNTP vs. https) for awhile (days, weeks) and report back..
Fun experiment... What cable modem make/model and home gateway do you have? In your home gateway, any QoS settings for the upstream? If so, can you try limiting upstream bandwidth to 70% of your provisioned rate? (see »
vonage.nmhoy.net/wrt54glqos.html but just try upstream limiting first before prioritizing FTP)
Jason