... very likely is either throttling or traffic shaping your P2P connections, so your download speeds may be severly limited. You could try to connect a very lively torrent - like a linux distribution, let´s say Ubuntu - and check there: If the maximum download speed you achieve is still within the range of the recently experienced 60kByte/sec, they do shape your IP traffic.
As in general: It can take a while for a torrent to be "connected" enough so downloading kicks in. But it is also depending on your settings. In Transmission, under "Preferences" and then "Peers" do specify your numbers: I have "Global Maximum" set to 400 and "New Transfer Maximum" to 80. I get best speeds of my connection (DSL 16000), when the torrent can deliver. Do also limit your upload speed to, let´s say, a quarter or half of your maximum possible with your provider. When you set unlimited upload speed, your connection can get stuck (think of too many people trying to get out through one little door all at the same time). This also will slow down response times for surfing the net.
Beware, though: This is highly dependant on your router - some won´t be able to do it, some even allow more before they become unstable (mostly reconnecting due to crashing of too many simultaneous connections).
