Qwest

Qwest is the

ILEC in Ames. That means, they are the heirs to the physical plant (copper wiring, switching locations, etc) that once belonged to

Ma Bell prior to it's breakup in 1984. It is the local

Baby Bell.

DSL signaling

All residential

DSL in Ames (as of the time of this writing, summer 2004) goes over wiring owned by Qwest which terminates at a

DSLAM in a Qwest managed location somewhere in Ames (often referred to as the "CO" for "

Central Office"). From the DSLAM, it is directed over an

ATM virtual circuit to your ISP. For example, if your ISP is Qwest.net then your traffic will get routed over Qwest's ATM network to DesMoines where your virtual circut is terminated in a router on Qwest's IP network.

ISP

Qwest also has two ISP services; MSN and Qwest.net. Blocks of static IPs are avalible with the Qwest.net ISP. The supported method of a single IP (dynamic or static) is

PPPoA, usually requiring termination of the connection in the

CPE. However, in some areas (including Ames)

PPPoE happens to work. This is beneficial as it allows your computer (or other PPPoE capable device) to have the IP address. On the downside PPPoE can introduce

MTU related problems.