I've got a fresh install of Slackware 10.2 with Apache 2.2.3, MySQL 4.1.x and PHP 5.1.6.

I find it strange that I have 10 'mysqld' processes (only 1 mysqld_safe that runs at boot in startup script), 9 'httpd' processes and 6 'agetty' processes.

Why is so much processes spawned? Is something wrong?

I also noticed that my browsing on the internet has significantly slowed down ever since I have this linux box in the network. Is there a connection?

mysqld_safe spawns mysqld processes to handle requests. httpd keeps multiple processes available unless you interface it with the inetd daemon. agetty is used for your [ctrl+]alt+f[1-7] consoles.

You can tweak apache's configuration to limit the number of httpd threads kept on-hand, and MySQL should have a similar configuration tweak. But that will slow down response times when people request information. If you aren't using these daemons, just turn off the program with chmod -x /etc/rc.d/{rc.mysqld,rc.httpd}

Doubt it, it's how most servers deal with multiple, simultaneous requests.

Could it be that people are requesting information from your httpd server? If they're using a lot of your upstream, you won't have enough to send a request to download a page or file.

Ok, I feel a little bit better now

Not many people are using this server, basicly just me and a friend of mine are checking a certain database ona regular basis. Thats the reason I thought that 10 processes for each daemon is a bit too much.

Is there a way to view current bandwidth usage in linux? Something like '20kbs down, 5kbs up'?

Thanks

Yep, I keep gkrellm running on my desktop to watch my network/hardrive/processor/memory usage. There are also the console-based utilites ntop and iptraf. There are probably other ways, but those are what I'm aware of.