upgrade modem drivers?

I don't know what modem is in that PC, but I suspect it's somewhere in the telephone line.  Modem "connect speed" (what shows up when you connect) can have many issues.  e.g.. how far away you are from the Telco central office (the more "hops" you have - repeater points the slower the connect speed will be), the general condition of the telco lines, your "inside wiring" (inside the residence), what other devices you have connected to the telephone line (answering machines and many cordless phones can affect modem connect speed). 

Although the majority of speed issues are with the Telco lines, the modem can be an issue, but I doubt that updating the drivers would help, that is a standard "it's not my problem" response from Telco and ISP's.  Modems that come with new PC's are not the best modems in the world but I still wouldn't upgrade the drivers (if there are even any updated drives available from Dell) or consider replacing the modem until the Telco issues are addressed and can be relatively complicated.

First thing to try, replace the RJ-11 telco cable that connects between the modem and the Telco wall jack and see if that produces a change.  If not, physically disconnect ALL other telephone devices from the telephone line (and power off any cordless phones) and then dial-up and connect to your ISP and see if the modem connect speed changes.  If it goes up, then one of the devices in the residence is the culprit.  If it doesn't change, try a different Telco wall jack and see if anything changes and if the connect speed increases then there is a problem with the wall jack or inside (in the residence) wiring for that jack. 

There are some additonal "strings" (commands) that can be added to some modems that will increase the modem connect speed on some modems but you are only fooling yourself with connect speed.  The true measure is the data "through put" speed - the speed that the data actually transfers at after connection, and this will be constantly changing depending on the condition of the telephone line at any given instance.  The two modems (yours and the ISP's) are constantly "handshaking" (negotiating between the two modems) for the optimum through put of data at any instance and can (and usually do) change from one second to another.

Sorry to get so wordy, but as you can see it's not a simple "1,2,3" to address connect speed issues. 

Thank you, Fireberd.

I only have one other phone in the house connected to the line and it would not be in use when I am dialed in.  I will try a new wall plug. I could probably shorten the phone line from there to the computer, I suppose. Probably old lines in this old moblie home park. I had to get the phone company out to put a new line from the box to the house recently because I had no usable connection at all.

My modem, and its driver--are at least a year older than yours.  'Updating' will change nothing.

As above, modems set their own speed to match the quality of the connection they have.  I actually got substantially better performance by limiting the login speed to 48K, per a Dell application note.  The reason for this is that modems negotiate speed aggressively, to rates which cannot always be sustained without error.  As errors go up, packets have to get resent, doubling transaction time.

It's fairly remarkable that anything running at 28K works at all, on a voice system designed for 3K.