I'm using AT&T, so you may be right about Verizon. BUT, AT&Ts documentation claimed windows and their software were required to connect. All I had to do was plug the modem in, look at the IP address under the modem, type it into a browser and then the modems software did all the configuration for me. Now, I did have to call AT&T to get my PW. I already have the Login/PW screen up on my comp and just said "uh-huh" everytime they mentioned IE. Then once they gave me my PW, login and everything worked. A lot of cable companies do the same thing. They include their software, claim it and Windows is required to connect. Most of them are even easier, though. You just plug in and usually it works whether you have Win, Mac or Linux. They'll say WinXP is required, too... and you could plug it into an old Win95 machine and it will work. I suspect with the proper drivers, win3.11 and DOS would work too. Heck, I believe there are people with Amigas and a cable modem! Would the layperson know this? Of course not. Companies should really be more Linux friendly and acknowledge that it can work too, and it usually isn't that hard. Is she stupid for not figuring Linux out? NO But she should've asked a friend for help, or even gone to ubuntuforums - oh, she couldn't do that, could she? Maybe from a public computer or something. The Dell rep should've been able to help her, too. My guess is she might have been looking at one of those rare Dells with Ubuntu available and saw the option and saw it was cheaper than Windows and went with it. People give up too easy, though. And it's a crappy reason to miss school, and it's stupid to blame that which you just don't understand. (If she needed to blame someone, it might be more applicable to blame Verizon for not supplying Linux capability/help) A clever person could've borrowed a Windoze computer to configure the modem, then plug in the Linux one, too. *LOL*

Yes, they do need calibration from time to time, but that's kind of irrelevant. Servicing could mean calibration or fixing a problem. He also used the word "fix" so I assume that something out of the norm was wrong with it.