I did some last night but it seems to be fine now, I just downloaded an
image viewer with no problems or slowness, for me it never got that low,
either, it was at more like 50 k a second which I just attritubetd to
overusage, IE, many people downloading at once.

There is an initial boost, and if I want to dowload four or five packages
it's fine, running at normal speed, but all of a sudden it'll get cut down
if I'm downloading a larger amount.

I never noticed that, but if im downloading that much I usually leave the
computer alone for a few hours and play my DS or something, so I would never
notice that.
Mabye it is the server trying to save bandwidth.

You may want to close any web site you have open. Like Myspace.com. Mypace is a
bandwidth eating machine.

I didn't have any other applications open during the slowdown (aside from my
browser for about five minutes to see if the slowdown was my hardware or
not). It could always just be some sort of problem between where I am and
where the repository servers are located; I've noticed that anything
third-party (like Automatix) still runs at a good speed - it's only the
official Ubuntu repositories I'm having trouble with.

It could be Ubies Mirrors that are over loaded. It happens from time to time. It
can be your ISP limiting your KBS. Hardware should not be really an issue.

I'm trying to get a friend to try Ubuntu on a system that has a
crashed Windows install. Looking at a list of what's available in the
repositories should cause that " WOW " affect but I can't find a link
to it. I can get there with Synaptic or add and remove programs but
how do I send someone using Windows there to get a look see?

I would suggest the live CD. It also has the benefit of giving hands
on comfort about how easy it is to modify, install and use the OS.