Solution:

There are a couple ways to lower the connection speed. Depending on the modem you have, going to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Modems -> Properties and selecting a lower port speed may change your connection speed as well. There is an option to "Only connect at this speed" which in theory should guarantee that you only connect at that speed. However, this setting is merely the speed that your computer communicates with the modem, not that your modem communicates to the phone line. It used to work out that lowering this speed in turn lowered the connection speed overall, but some modems no longer adhere to this. If you want to guarantee that you will connect at a lower speed, try restricting your modem to an earlier protocol. That is, if you are connecting using v.90 or 56K x2, try going down to v.34. This should lower your speed to 28,800 or thereabouts. To find out how to restrict your modem to v.34 you will need to know the exact make and model of your modem and find an initialization string that will do it for you. Initialization strings can be added by going to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Modems -> Properties -> Advanced -> Extra Settings and putting the string in the empty box. Contact your modem's manufacturer if you are unsure as to how to go about finding an initialization string for your modem.