Usb modem?

Hi agian, I have a wireless ricochet modem, which uses standard modem commands. I can connect to the internet through it, but the connection is super-slow and stalls constantly. I have tried the option "novj" in my /etc/ppp/options file because I heard it would help. It didn¹t. =] I Have tried 2.2.16 and 2.4 kernels. Both allow me to dial and maintain an extremely slow - unstable connection. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance, -taylor