BellSouth's FastAccess DSL Internet connectivity.

[Austin L. Denyer (SysAdmin.) as root]

Hi All.

Does anyone have any experience with BellSouth's FastAccess DSL Internet
connectivity and Linux?  Specifically, I am looking for the following
information:

1. Is it any good?

2. What DSL modem to they supply?  I am running a laptop, so the PCI
card option is out.  I hear they can supply a USB one - is this Linux
compatible?  (I will be upgrading my kernel to 2.4.test-4 shortly).

3. Would ANY 10 Base-T network adapter suffice (as long as it is Linux
compatible)?

4. They are very specific about their download speeds, but what is their
upload speed (not everyone is a leech).

5. Has anyone managed to get this going with Linux?

6. I want to network my laptop to my Wife's PC so that we can both use
the Internet at the same time - I take it that I will need two network
cards in the laptop to do this.  Any recommendations?  (I don't want to
do the Internet link directly from my Wife's PC if I can avoid it as the
laptop is FAR more stable - her PC runs Win95, and my two kids [10 and
12] use it; 'nuff said...)

7. Would it be possible to set up additional e-mail accounts on the
Linux box, so that e-mails could be sent direct to the box?  I need this
to get around the paltry 5Mb mailbox limit that BellSouth offer (an
e-mailed document with a few embedded screenshots soon grows bigger than
that!).

8. Does it offer a static IP address?  This would make telneting to the
machines a lot easier.  (Maybe I'm just being hopeful - I used to use
Demon Internet as my ISP when I lived in the UK, and even their dial-up
accounts had static IP, unlimited e-mail addresses, etc.  Heaven!)

I think that's enough for now ;-D

Although, if anyone knows of (and can point me to) a decent FAQ for this
(other than the half-hearted attempt on their website), I would be very
grateful...

Thanks in advance,

Ozz.