Thank you all very much for all your replies.
I think Mark J. has the ghist of what I'm asking.
I know ISP's 'brag' about the download speeds they can give you and I know not to take that face value. I do understand the download/uploading speeds are governed by certain criteria, ie how far away from the exchange and how much line traffic there is.
My BT exchange is fortunately quite near so thats not a problem. As to how much traffic there is, I also know its to do with the times day/night I'm online too.
It's just my ISP (Pipex

-for now) say its up to 8 Mb download and up to 448 kb upload. I found a site that I tested mine on after asking this and it read 4mg download, but can't remember upload. When I read members posts about their line speeds I was wondering how they obtained their info.
So I hope I've helped more -sorry I didn't explain properly fist time round, but I think now my question has been answered.
Can I now ask what other members think of the result I got from the test speeds please? BUT before you kindly answer, I've just also tried the link Mark J. posted and it came back as upto 3mg and can do more with Max?