Just run a test on the laptop and it recommends that I can set my MTU speed to 1450. Can someone please tell me how and where I access these settings

What test?
What OS?
What is MTU? Forgive my iggorance!
John.

On your router/BB Modem.

Or in the config for your NIC if it allows.... I know some of the servers at work let you do this... but never seen it on a domestic...

MTU is maximum transmission unit. If you have no problems with the speed of your connection don't bother. You can download free utilities to change it in the registry.

Laptop download seems really slow, so do I need to go into the router settings and change that or do I have to change an individual setting on the laptop??

You shouldn't need to touch it in normal use but off the top of my head there's an app called DrTCP which makes changing it easy.

But as said its just registry settings (they can just be tricky to find if you've got multiple NIC's or other things that windows sees as a network card - firewire etc).