This is the first reply:
"sent your account to the engineers to confirm loop length it currently shows your account over 14Kft."

Then I asked again why I can get Earthlink and not AT&T and got this reply from the same person:
"More than likely its either different equipment and It does not appear that their on-line checker cross references our records when they pre-qual. I cant answer for Earthlink as i do not work for them."

So I still don't know anything more than I did before.

I finally have my wireless network with Earthlink working again. The tech had me reset something that messed it all up. My computer guy walked me through fixing it yesterday. Spent about an hour on the phone with him, but it finally works. He did tell me to ask for the second tier of help next time since the first tier, as I already know, is totally useless but the tier above them actually know something.

I still can't decide if I should just dump DSL and go with broadband card or not.

RE: Covad
Has anyone had any experience with this DSL, especially residence instead of business and in the Chicago area?