In Seattle, USWest uses Cisco 675 ADSL modems for it's high-speed offering. (My original installation was a NetRunner 204 -- predecessor to the 675.)

• When using Microsoft's HyperTerm (builtin terminal emulator on NT, you must give the dang thing an area code to get in the first time. Annoying as we're not using a phone line, but that's that.
• With HyperTerm you'll also have to give this session a name. Use "DSL" or some such. You may want to put a shortcut on your desktop to this so you can get there easily.
• With HyperTerm you must select NONE for Flow Control. Apparently the modem or cable do not properly support RS-232 (though it could be HyperTerm, who knows.)
• You may use the highest baud rate available (34800) or any lower if you'd rather.
• Hit the Enter key to get it's attention, then login. I strongly recommend you set a password. (I'll add a section on how to do this later, when I remember how it's done.)
• Enter the command ena and log in with the superuser password.
• The most important command by far is SHOW INTERFACE WAN0. I don't believe the modem is case sensitive (I always use lower case, and the above command can be abbreviated to sho int wan0. You want the "Line Quality xxdb" to be greater than 18. Between 12db and 18db, USWest considers this to be a very marginal connection, and expect it to fall in and out at random. Less than 12db will not make a connection at all. The max is 54bd -- mine, when working normally seems to be about 39db.
• sho int eth0 gives you info about the in-house network.
• My modem is in bridging mode, as dictated by my ISP.
• I have never set an IP address to modem, I believe this is only used when not in bridging mode,.