Slow TCP to my college network

[DrSpirograph]

Hi,
Can anyone help me figure out why I'm getting really poor download speeds from my college. I notice the problem especially when downloading large files from them or trying to fetch my email with POP3.
(by poor I mean something like a few bytes a second on a broadband connection).
The problem is only with my college network, general internet browsing is fine. I'm connecting from home and I suspect there's something weird with the college network's configuration and it's interaction with Linux - my flatmate who's on MacOSX doesn't see the problem.

Below are two tcpdump's, the first is connecting to college POP3, the second is just fetching www.google.com.
I notice that the college end seems to be setting a lot of PUSH[/code]. That's pretty odd isn't it? Since that's the end that should be sending the data.

[think4urs11]

Could be an autonegotiation or MTU-size issue; please provide the output for

ethtool eth1
ifconfig eth1
_________________
Nothing is secure / Security is always a trade-off with usability / Do not assume anything / Trust no-one, nothing / Paranoia is your friend / Think for yourself