Just got DSL, and its incredibly slow

[Dyne]

We just got DSL recently, finally getting rid of the sluggish dial up. We have our DSL up and running, but it is running at a horribly slow pace. I checked a couple speed tests and I am getting 180 kb/s while I should be getting at most 1500 kb/s. While its faster than our old dial up connection, it is only faster by about 4 times. Its more like a souped up dial up then a DSL connection. We got this mainly for playing online games (namely Xbox 360), but we get nothing but lag during play.

I checked for viruses, and none were detected. Our modem is brand new. We have no clue what to do. We are paying for 1.5 mb/s connection and onl recieving 12% of it. What should we do? What could be the cause of this problem?

[PrntRhd]

Which operating system are you using?
I would suggest running the tweaktest at this site to diagnose the issue:
http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks

Also DSL service speed is dependent on the loop distance to your phone company switch office and back. If the loop length is long, speed will suffer greatly.

[Dyne]

I am using NetZero DSL. The ISP is Sonic.net.

My test results from the tweaking test (this is after I followed their recommendations):

http://www.dslreports.com/tweakr/block:498fb41?service=dsl&speed=1500&os=winXP&via=normal

They say its "looking good." I tried to change the MTU to 1500 using drTCP, but that recommendation still shows. It also said to change my RWIN (forgot which number they said), and now it says its in range. Still, my connection is incredibly slow.

[PrntRhd]

Sonic has a decent reputation, how far are you from the telephone company switch facility?
BTW those ping times are horrible, & indicates something the ISP can fix on their end.
Minimum ping: 135.67 ms
Maximum ping: 247.06 ms

Mine are averaging 49ms for example. I have seen mine as low as 23ms.

The MTU requires a reboot to save the changed settings. Are you connecting via a router or is this just the PC connected to the modem?
Also you need to know how your DSL connection is set up because of this:
For PPPoE, your MaxMTU should be no more than 1492 to allow space for the 8 byte PPPoE "wrapper,"

[Dyne]

I am unsure of their switch facility location. I don't even have a phone number to call. Do you know how I can obtain this info?

I am connecting just from the computer to the modem, no router.

[PrntRhd]

The phone company switch known as a Central Office is what I meant.

[Variable]

I would check your phones on the line, when DSL is installed they either put a line filter on the phone line entry point (usually outside the house) or they give you line filters for phones inside the house. Since the line is shared, phones with no filtering can cause problems with DSL signal.