Wireless vs. wired mobile PC at home

I have Time Warner roadrunner at home. I've gotten all the hype about their
"newer, faster" network. Supposed to get between 4 and 5 mbps now.

I complained to them about not being able to get much past 1.0 MBps, and they
pointed me to their speedtest site. Tried it, and sure enough, slow
connection.

Also noted that my usenet downloads from easynews never got much past 1.3
mbps or so.

Last night I had to copy a few gig of files from the tablet pc to my server
in my basement, so I plugged into the switch, since it would copy much
quicker than over the 802.11g.

Immediately my usenet downloads started peaking over 5MBps. The speedtest,
when I paused the usenet downloads, was anywhere from 4.5 to about 5.2

Switched to wireless, back to 1.3. Switched to wired, back up to 5 or so.

Now I can transfer files over my 802.11g network quicker than that speed
between PC's. I can't think of any reason why, if the transmission speed is
faster locally, that being on the wireless would impact my web speed...

Network is a 3Com OfficeConnect 802.11g wireless router. Tablet is a Toshiba
Portege M200 using Intel's 2200GB 802.11B/G card.

There is a 3Com OfficeConnect gigabit switch in the mix as well, but not
involved with the wireless since that's just to tie in the rest of my ports
in the house to the wireless router (WAP and router all in one).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I hate having to plug in to
download at over 1.3 MBps or so...


--
John