Wow. I have been way too busy. Weird, huh? I'm even busier now, but I decided to post stuff here regardless, as a de- stress plan :-)
So, Bellsouth got out to my house on December 20th, and finally agreed with me that it was a wiring issue. You see, while ON THE PHONE with a BS rep, listening to him tell me it was a software problem, I rewired a jack using backwards pairs, and suddenly they saw my end of the connection. I explained what I had just done, and said I was going to go out to the NTI on the side of the house and start plugging things together randomly (and I mentioned I had a power outlet right next to the box, along with my main power feed from the utility company, AND my cable feed) if they didn't roll a truck. Next day service, and the tech even said "Wow, I've never seen a whole box wired backwards like this" :-) But, it's working now, the roaring-penguin PPPOE software works great, and maybe in the next 3 months or so they'll finally quit billing me for the OLD service *sigh*
So, the Queso stuff is STILL on hold. I haven't even LOOKED at it lately, and the whole new kernel thing has kept me playing with other stuff in the few free minutes I DO have.
Well, that and finally updating my web site.