I was connecting at 55-56kbs up until about 6-9 months ago but it has been
decreasing by small increments since.

I dual boot with WinME and the connect & DL speeds are normal (56k). That
eliminates everything between my ISP and the XP OS itself. I have not
changed the modem initializtion string or any of the settings. I also used
the "Network Connections" wizard to make a new connection but the result was
the same. My ISP is Earthlink and they have been no help so far.

If someone can help me troubleshoot & solve this problem, I'd much
appreciate it.

bilm