OK, I spent at least half of this snowy (about 2.5 feet so far) day trying to get a Cisco 675 DSL modem to work. Hack, hack, hack. Read, read, read. Hack, hack, hack. Never got it to work. Why? Read on.

Why all the fuss? Well, I'd like to be able to access our corporate VPN, and I just can't do it with my internal DSL modem and WinProxy in the picture. Not that I haven't tried. Ositis (maker of WinProxy) claims that WinProxy is IPSEC-compatible, and therefore VPN-ready, but the site provides no help in actually setting it up with my particular VPN client. I tried a variety of things, and finally called Ositis tech support. After spending 10 minutes (on my dime) collecting my profile information and having me explain the problem, the tech says I have to pay $30 in order to get support. I was beside myself. Hopping mad. What made it worse was that the guy was a complete and total robot. I could tell he was reading from a script, and he wasn't listening to what I was saying. Eventually I hung up on him.

So, back to the external modem. My idea was to run an external DSL modem (generously given me by a co-worker) and then use a router/switch to do my firewalling, inbound proxy-fying, and connection-sharing. My lovely wife picked up a LinkSys router/switch for me on her way home from work (this was a great thing she did, given the conditions). However, hours later, I've no connection via the 675 (and the LinkSys isn't even in the picture yet), and am ready to give up. So, I call Qwest as a last-ditch effort. There's a simple reason I can't connect with the 675 -- it's not supported on my circuit. I need a 678!!

Naturally, after all the hacking, my old network config (not to mention the office) was a shambles. It took me a while to get everything back to the WinProxy config. I guess I'll start trolling eBay for a 678.