visual and connection issues

I'm not sure why this happens but when I go on multiplayer all of the servers show up as having 1 bar connection and I have lots of client side lag while playing my friend who has the same laptop computer has a similar problem, but it is not as bad. I believe this is a problem with windows 8's compatibility with either java, or Minecraft itself. I would like this fixed before 1.6

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Meet the same environments listed
2. Open Minecraft
3. Select multiplayer
4. View the connection values