I was just filling out a PRCD with my company for an extra DSL modem (a process which has sometimes been known to take months) and I realized that maybe I should just ask if anyone here has an extra.

I know that sometimes when people change DSL service providers, they get left with extra DSL modems that gather dust in the closet. If anyone's got one that they want to throw my way, you'd be saving me the headache of the corporate purchase order process.

See, I've got an existing modem which intermittently fails once every few months, and needs to be rebooted. I've got an identical modem on another line which never fails and never needs to be rebooted. I verified that the modem was the issue simply by swapping the two modems and waiting. After a year or so of occasional reboots in its new location, I'm now certain the modem is the item that was at fault all along. Of course, it's long since out of warranty and the phone company refuses to replace it or even credit me the $99.00 it would cost to replace it. I've already wasted more than $99.00 of my time trying to get them to make it right. Heck, our monthly bill is a lot more than that. I think they're being pretty snarky about it if you ask me.

The only catch is that I don't know a lot about the technology, in terms of which modems will work with which kinds of connections. I don't know if "just any old ADSL modem" will work, or if it needs to be special in some way. I do know the following, though:

- Current modem which is working on this line is a "Westell Wirespeed". Same as the one that intermittently fails and that I'm trying to replace.

- It is supposed to be able to support auto-configuration. When I swapped the two modems, I didn't need to do any software configuration at all, they each just "worked" on the new line.

- I was told by a Pac Bell technician that I could replace it with a "Speedstream ADSL Modem", part number 120-5360-501 at www.sbcdslstore.com . He said it would support auto configuration as well.

I'm sure there are plenty of companies which make ADSL modems which will just plug in and work in this spot. I'm betting that somewhere on this BBS, someone has one which is gathering dust right now. Anyone?