Windows 7 - Extremely slow dialup

I have Windows 7 Home premium 64-bit with a diaup connection to the internet. Dialup is all that's available in my rural area other than the over priced satellite service (which I'm may be forced to consider). My problem, the connection speed is extraordinarily slow, even for dialup speeds. My other PCs - Vista and XP- generally sustain download times from 3 to 6 kbs (which is still slow by most dialup standards) but much better than my Win 7 machine, which is around .4 to .6 kbs - a factor of 6 or more slower. Its virtually impossible to get anti-virus or OS updates. I tried 2 modems - Encore ENF656 USB and a US Robotics USR5638 PCIe - both with 64 bit Windows 7 compatible drivers. Both worked, but still with the slow speeds. I'm told by US Robotics that most modems today are designed more for quality of transmission rather that speed, such as for Fax transmissions. The Win 7 PC has an AMD Athlon II 630 quad processor with no serial port in, or I'd definetely try a modem there. I'm beginning to think that maybe there's something intrinsic to the motherboard and processor configuration that's causing the time descrepancies. I'd like to stick my Vista modem (PCI soft modem with SmaptCP) in the Windows 7 pc, but cannot find a compatible driver. The Encore USB modem did show improved speeds on the Vista, but was still somewhat slow. Has anyone experienced similar problem with Win 7 ? Or, can someone suggest a modem that might solve the problem ?

What anti-virus and firewall do you have installed on the Win 7 computer?

Avast 5.0.504 and Windows firewall

That version was a pre-release wasn't it? Does it also have a firewall?

No, I have the free version, but I think that Avast Internet Security - the one that that want money for - does.

Lee,
Try the free MSE AV and Microsoft firewall as see if that helps.
I know having a dial up is a pain but you don't have any other choice.
I also use Google Chrome and there is FF for you to try also.
Is your computer booting up and everything else running fast and smooth outside of internet connection being slow?
Post back and let Jacee or myself know what else we can do to help.

Using Avast Or MSE doesn't really make a diff as i've tried and had both them on my system, also seeing that i never used dial-up on Vista nor XP i can't help ya there but on windows 7 being slow or not it's not really going to get that 1 xtra kb it depends on the servers your connecting to.

Are those numbers from a single download? or multiple.. i can download one file as high as 10-15 kbs. I've also tested all browsers to see which is fastest on dial-up and i can tell you firefox has the best speed.

EDIT: I also use Comodo Firewall i like it and its simple but another reason i love it is because i can also view connections being made to see if a Process consuming my bandwidth to make me Extremely slow.

Thanks for the replys. yes, the Windows 7 machine works nicely; It's networked via router switch with the Xp & Vista for file & printer sharing, and all works nicely. Transfer speeds were averaged using Networx speed monitor from several downloads of a common web file. I had about decided to abandon this problem and order Wild Blue or Hughes net, until I read some of their customer reviews - real horror stories about service,billing , and reception problems.

Yeah i want wild blue also but its just the price it's ridiculous i think the reviews i seen on it were either the price, can't game with it (of course you can't) and the ones you mentioned, but they were old reviews i don't know if the service changed any.