[CLUE-Talk] Need Qwest DSL 'modem'

[Timothy C. Klein]

* Sean LeBlanc (seanleblanc at americanisp.net) wrote:
> On 11-06 22:16, Timothy C. Klein wrote:
> 
> <big snip>
> 
> This is very good information. I've been thinking about buying my own modem
> (I currently rent the 678) but was a little wary of all the hassle it might
> cause. 
> 
> Did you have to call Qwest at all to work this out with them? Other than
> figuring out the settings, would you have had to call your ISP at all?

I didn't call Qwest at all.  The part that Qwest would need to help on
is the modem training up.  I got a link light the first time I plugged
it in.  It seems to auto-negotiate all of the protocol information
between the modem and the DSLAM that belongs to Qwest.  Qwest does seem
to have changed their language regarding modems.  It used to be that
they 'required' a certain modem.  Now, certain modems are 'supported.'
Even they may be realizing that other modems can inter-operate.  Oddly,
if you elect to get MSN from Qwest (which none of us did, I'm sure ;-)
but my Aunt did), they give you a totally different modem.  One not
listed on their web page.  Odd.

The stuff I had to futz with was the stuff from my ISP.  In the
beginning, my ISP thought that they would need to tweak something on
their end to make the modem work.  But the tweak he had in mind did not
help.  They did everything on their end.  I then just futzed with the
settings and poked around on the Internet until it fired up.  I don't
think I needed their help, really.  But luckily, my ISP was willing to
try.  If you have someone who isn't, you might think about Forethought.
I was really impressed -- they didn't give me any flack at all for going
and buying a strange modem.  I expected differently.

Luckily, it seems that DSL is starting to move in the direction of
standardization, so it is becoming possible to buy a modem and hope it
has some chance of working.  Just be wary of ones that were specific to
some other region (Verizon or BellSouth, or whatever).  The VCI/PCI may
be hard coded, and that has to be able to be changed.  When those are
wrong, the modem trains up, but the DSLAM in the CO just completely
ignores all request from your modem.  The Zoom is nice because it is
totally independent of a telco, so it has a million and one options to
configure, increasing your chances of getting it to work.  

HTH,

Tim