This is a quick one to speed up WSS when using it, especially when doing demos.  The service by default will try to connect to the web to get the online gallery - remove this and things speed up amazingly :-).
 For into on how to change this, have a look at Is it taking ages to display the gallery when you are trying to add a web part? 
 ttfn
  
 David
		    
            
	        Posted
		    
Mon, Sep 18 2006 10:51 AM
			by
		    
David Overton