Widow,

To answer your fixed / static IP question.. Yes and No.

COVAD used PPPoE to provide you with your IP address, but their product is designed so that a specific IP address is tied to a specific username and password so that the same IP address is always given to that user.

I can actually buy an additional 5 "fixed" IP addresses for $10 a month if I had a need to do so. I have 1 IP address with NAT, but I would need to upgrade the firmware on my Zyxel Prestige 643 in order to handle the additional IPs and since at this point it "ain't broken" - I'm not "fixin' it".