Visual SourceSafe is shrinking my pipe

I work from home, connecting to our servers using DSL (512/256) and a VPN. Most of my develoment work is done in Visual Studio 2003 with Visual SourceSafe 6.0 (multiple checkouts enabled). The most annoying aspect of this setup is that any VSS interaction is very slow. I mean, is usually takes that long that I lose focus on my current task. Not good. So I've been looking at tools and techniques to help me work effectively.

Here are the options I've found so far:

a. SourceGear's SourceOffSite Classic ($239)
I used SOS at a prior job and found it to be quite functional and stable. It is the most expensive option of all the tools but is also the most effective. It's just to expensive for me, at the moment.

b. SCCBridge (free)
I've tried to use this tool several times but each time gave up due to a lack of robustness. It spits out very obscure messages and has a fairly difficult configuration process. When I finally got it working, the speed just wasn't much better, if at all.

c. VssConnect ($30)
I haven't actually looked at this product yet but intend to check out the eval version later this week. If their website is to be believed, it's precisely what I'm looking for!

d. Working disconnected (free, it's a feature of Visual Studio & VSS)
It just occurred to me yesterday that I could disconnect (File menu, Source Control, Change Source Control) from the VSS database and work offline. I'll post my observations on this technique separately.