Hello all, I'm contemplating getting DSL service through my local phone co. Bellsouth (anyone have specific dealings with them re: DSL) and find myself in total ignorance of what's involved, so please bear with me as I ask these questions.
1. The service comes with an external DSL modem. I was under the impression that DSL hooked up through one's ethernet card. Since I appear to be wrong, what does the DSL modem do and is it likely to be GNU/Linux compatible? 2. I installed the default kernel in my system and didn't set up any networking stuff (currently using a dial up connection -- I'm presuming that DSL is a kind of networking thing). Where do I find the information about these things and is there a Debian tool that will help me configure whatever needs configuring? 3. The webpage for Bellsouth DSL mentions three requirements (in addition to MS or Mac) a) USB (probably not currently supported in Debian, eh?) OR b) ethernet card OR c) NIC. My question: what is the difference between ethernet and NIC? Which should I get? 4. Another requirement was that I needed a dial up modem installed, which I do have, but why would I need that? 5. If the equipment they send doesn't work, I should be able to get my own stuff, correct? And hardware advice here? 6. Any other advice, pointers, etc. Thanks, I know this is a lot of stuff and probably tiresome, but I feel totally lost. David Bellows