SOLVED
I finally figured it out.. There was something wrong with my internal network, either a bad switch or a bad ethernet cable.
The old configuration was
Verizon router - 20' ethernet - 5 port switch - 20 ' ethernet - 5 port switch - 10' ethernet - 4 port switch/printserver - 5' ribbon ethernet - Linkstation.
Nothing to go wrong there huh??
I reconfigured as
Verizon Router - 20' ethernet - Linkstation
Speeds were about 30kbs, The first copy I did after the reconfigure was 1.4mbs
So, the problem was not in the linkstation, nor was it my laptop. The issue was a problem with the network.
One of the clues was that the diagnostics on my verizon router was showing an occasional 25 percent loss during a ping. However, the linkstation was not reporting bad packets. Not sure about why that was but the end result works for me.
Cheers
chris