Static IP = bad connection?

[Noldster]

Hey, I asked on the forums awhile ago if there was a way to lock a lan IP. I got a quick responce that showed how to use a static ip. Everything was good for awhile. Then at one point everything started doing bad. My downloads (which are usually 350 Kb/s) went to about 30 Kb/s. Sounds and such on my game wouldnt play (like a gun fire shot) which means that it wouldnt register all the time. And just my entire connection was terrible. I thought it was the internet company (time warner) that screwed up the net in my area or something. But one day I go on my comp, and my internet just completely doesnt work. I thought it was the whole internet, so I test on another computer, and it worked. So then I took off all my static IP config stuff (subnet mask, default gateway, etc) back to the default so I would have just a regular IP and everything works back to the regular connection of amazing speed =D. I'm just wondering what the problem could have been and if I could solve it because I'd really like to get my static IP working again. Thanks =D