Why is my download speed nowhere near my speedtest.net results?
I used speedtest.net to check what my download speed to Seattle was and it came up with [see attached picture], and yet i get a maximum of 1mbps.

So my question is, why am i not seeing all of this download speed?

Perhaps you're confusing megabytes with megabits. Bytes aren't 22 times as big as bits though..

Do you get a maximum of 1mpbs on all downloads?

Not a max but a general number. I can get anywhere from 0-1.2mb/s

Well some of it depends where your downloading things from, places such as megaupload and similar throttle the speeds that you can download at, thus saving bandwidth.

Quote from 1337sause :

Not a max but a general number. I can get anywhere from 0-1.2mb/s

Are you talking about megaBITs or megaBYTEs here? It's very common that people confuse these two. 8 Mb (megaBIT) = 1 MB (megaBYTE). Browsers report DL speeds in BYTES, so if your best is about 2MB/s, it's actually 16Mb, which is quite OK if you ask me. You can't expect your downloads to be running flatout all the time as most of the servers just don't have enough bandwidth to cope with load they're usually under.

Getting 22MB/S from your internet provider should in theory produce around 2-3mb/s download speeds, but that would only be to something like your own dedicated server where there are no caps.

also, if ur not confusing units, it could be ur pc's fault.
whenever i had a 50 mbit line, my new pc said 51 mbit on speedtest.net, while my old one said 80 mbit (wrong!).
if ur pc is (kinda) slow the speedtest most likely is incorrect.