Yes i activated the program around 8 pm and straight away my download speed returned.
The problem with this is its a paid for service and also i dont see why i should have to mask my ip address just to get a service orange should be providing in the first place.
I just feel very suspicious that orange are somehow throttling my download speeds.

Masking my ip address through the virtual private network program seems to cure the problem, but i want to know what the problem is.

I believe it uses point to point tunnelling protocol

Just guessing but is it possible that somebody is stealing your bandwidth when you don't have VPN activated?

the program i used was called cyberghost VPN

Dont think its bandwidth stealing, i have wpa encryption activated

In reply to a post by darquorze:

Dont think its bandwidth stealing, i have wpa encryption activated

Ah! So you are using a wireless connection in the evenings which may explain the slow throughput, yet using VPN returns speeds to normal...

Was not referring to the VPN, but the protocol of the downloads, e.g. HTTP, FTP, Torrents, Newsgroups?

If it were wireless slowing down, then VPN would also be affected assuming running over the same wireless link.

http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/6...
http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/com.instranet.Inst...

Hence why knowing what protocol the downloads use is important

I primarily use newsgroups to download however i did try a torrent program to see if that was affected the same way, and it was, downloas speed slowed on that also until it stopped completely after 6 pm

Newsgroups and torrents are the two things Orange traffic manages, which precisely explains what you have seen. See links in the other post