Dial Up Connect Speed?

Some of us still live in the boonies and only have dial up. :>(

Anyway, XP always showed the connect speed for a short time in ballon help
over the connection in the tray just after connecting. I must say this is
probably the only useful ballon help I've seen.

It's gone in Vista and it's now a tedious process to see your dial up
connect speed, double click tray icon (not right click) see the Network
center, find the dial-up connect and finally click status.

The ballon help was very nice as if I did not connect at a decent speed I
could usually disconnect and redial and on a second or third re-connect get a
decent speed. Now it takes me as long to figue out my connect speed as it
does to connect very frustrating


Anyone aware of a way to turn on connect speed ballon help on a new connect?
Quicker way to determine dial connect speed?


Thanks,
Mike Schellenberger