No modem can get a connetcion faster than 53k over a standard phone line. Your actual connection is not necessarily what is reported by your dialer, because under some setups, the modem will report the actual connection speed, and under others it will report the rate between the modem and the computer. It depends on the brand and on the initialization string.
Windows tried to make the modem setup automatic, but unbranded internal modems often get get generic initializations that limit them to 28k. Beyond 28k, you have to send a brand specific setup to the modem to make it connect at at the highest possible speed.
Modems that work beyond 28k also have dynamic speeds. They adjust the transmission speed according to the amount of noise on the phone line.
Well, that's what the dialer said - connected at XX kbps, or speed: XX kbps. Now under XP the device manager reports that Conexant Systems SoftV92 Data Fax Modem uses the Microsoft driver. I don't remember whether or not I had a custom driver in Win98. Device manager reports that the Zoom V.92 PCI Voice Faxmodem uses a custom driver from Zoom, but in each list under driver details, I see MS modem.sys, and other common .dlls, and unique .dlls.
Anyone else have experience with a "Winmodem", or one without a DSP on board, under XP?