I find that I cannot move forward, but I can turn around. Lag is atrocious

[DecimusGaius]

My computer is less than a week old, top spec, and my connection is fine, yet in the viewer, it claims that the bandwidth is anything from 1 to 6 kbps.

[Rolig Loon]

You have a serious lag issue.  It's very hard to guess what you mean by "top spec", but begin by assuming that it's not as "top spec" as you think it is.  Drop your quality slider to Medium and your draw distance to 128m or lower.  Turn Advanced lighting off.  See if things are any better for you, especially if you move to a quiet sim like Pooley or Smith where there's almost no server lag. 

To check performance, familiarize yourself with the Statistics Bar (CTRL + Shift + 1), which is described here >>> http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-improve-Viewer-performance/ta-p/1316923

For other thoughts about lag -- a HUGE topic, heavily debated -- start with

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/lag

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_very_laggy

Also, consult Nalates's blog for suggestions about how to improve your Internet connection >>> http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/

If you want to provide extra information about your computer or provide other information that might help us offer more specific suggestions, click on the Options link in the upper right corner of your question and select EDIT. Please do not start a new thread. Doing that makes it hard for us to see what other people have already suggested, and it pushes other residents' questions off the page.