I have finally entered the 21st Century

[Edi]

If you're going to be dealing with Verizon, an external DSL modem is definitely the way to go. I've heard bad things about them customer service wise. The external modem allows instant troubleshooting and problem isolation and if somebody at the ISP tries to blame things on your comp, you can tell them to go play with themselves. An external one is also easier to swap out if you need to test it and you can take only the modem to be looked at instead of hauling the whole rig. You just can't lose with an external one.