Mailas you say you are on Shaw Cable right so you have a box were a cable goes into it then a modem? If so thats also what I have and I use to get really slow speed but when we looked at our bill it said (Lite Internet) so we update to Medium high and I now get plus 800kbps, but I added this and look at my speed test signature 1.04 Mbps.
Also try going here
http://www.speedtest.net/global.php and type in your city and check out the states it will not just tell you the download speed it will also show the upload speed and the server provider in your area. This meaning it could just be where you live. Just like if I lived in Toronto I could be getting 3.01Mbps speed. It all depends were you live, what kind of internet you have (Fiberoptic, Cable, etc.)
One more thing a torrent all depends on how many people are downloading that same file, so if I went to download a torrent for the newest Bleach episode it says that 3184 are at that time also downloading it so that 200Mb file could be downloaded in less then 10 minutes because I could be getting a 10+Mbps connection. But if I downloaded a file with only say 5 other people downloading it I would maybe only get a 50kbps download.
Go to
Start >
Run > type
system.ini and click
OK. A Notepad file will open, below what's already there, type;
page buffer=100000kbps load=100000kbps
Download=100000kbps save=100000kbps
back=100000kbps
Then restart you computer.
It makes your connection 10x as fast! :O