Thanks S1 and Timmers83 for replying. I'm pretty content with my Verizon DSL, and recently got an upgrade to 1.5/384 from 768/128. I think I was hoping in my "heart of hearts" that the diagnosis of "running at only 49.15 % of your hosts average (verizon.net)" might indicate that I could get 3.0 from them. I did a CO distance check before asking for the current upgrade, and Covad reported me at 12,567 ft. from the CO (which is a Verizon CO and the one servicing my DSL). I believe I need to be <11,000 feet to qualify for 3.0, but I can alway hope.
I'm directly connected to the Westell ADSL router provided by Verizon, running WinXP SP2. As you suggested I've downloaded the CableNut program and CSS files and will give it a try.
Great forum. Thanks again.