This morning, I got through to my service provider tech support. I know now why I'm not seeing any changes when I "optimize" my network settings with scripts like Broadband Optimizer.
The cable in my area is "controlled" by Click-Network, a city operated system. When they first went "live" and offered cable to the people, that had no buffers set up to limit the speed of their servers.
For awhile then, I was receiving cable service equal to a T-2 connection. That's not the case any more. They have reigned in the speeds so that if you're paying for 1 Mbs service, that's what you're going to get.