DSL connection problem

I am a novice to DSL so please bear with me. I have a friend who has verizon DSL and says it crashes every time he attempts to go to the internet, It is the computer that locks up when trying to access the internet. His computer is now at my house, I have no DSL. I was going to reload the software for him as a first step then found that the verizon software must have the DSL signal to install properly. So I am back to basics. The verizon on line help I have found so far has not helped me much.
Please specific questions:
Is there any constructive troubleshooting I can do off line?
When I can get a signal at his house what is the recommended trouble shooting steps?

When you say

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I was going to reload the software for him

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did you mean a complete format and reinstall of the machine? or just re-install the Verizon software?

If you mean a complete format/reinstall, then leave only the Verizon software to be installed at the end, which you can do at your friends house.
If you mean the Verizon DSL Software, why not do the same at his house.

The software is likely to be corrupted by viruses and spyware... before you reload verizon, make sure the machine is clean.

Thanks for the response. Yes I was concerned about spyware and viruses I loaded adaware, spybot and AVG and ran them all, got the usual hundreds of spyware instances. I also gave him a little more ram he had only 64K on a w98 machine. Verison says 64 is enough but even for the limited use he does with the machine I thought it inadequate. I plan to reload only the verizon software and will do that at his house but was looking for any other testing I could do at my house before returning the machine. I do plan to pull his NIC card and put it in one of the machines on my network to make sure it is working. Any other recommendations

www.emsisoft.com get a-squared - they do a free one and scan with that - it checks for diallers and trojans that others don't.

you may also want to try and replace the verizon software with a smaller, faster more stable application.

raspppoe is a popular PPPoE client that runs on just about any windows based system

The question I'll ask is - "Why install any company's software to get broadband?"

We use SBC DSL at work (thru a router) and don't use the SBC supplied company software to access the internet... Clicking the Internet Explorer icon works just as well...

I use Roadrunner at home and don't have their software installed...

What advantage is it to have the company software?

Granted the work computer goes thru a router and the account name and password is listed there but...

I am using Verizon DSL, and I've never installed the Verizon software. I'm using an early Linksys 4 port DSL router. I suggest that you hook up the DSL modem (probably a Westell Wirespeed ) to the router input, connect the output #1 to the computer's ethernet port and open Internet Explorer, or better yet Firefox. There should be some negotiation for a bit and then you should be online. Works great for me. By the way, don't use DSL without a router and some kind of software port such as Zone Alarm.
Jim

Thanks for the responses. I discovered last night after finally getting my test bed working that his nic card was bad so it may not be a software issue at all. I agree about ISP providers software I also don't use any and seem to be much more stable than those who do. I also fully concur about firewall protection. Will let you know how the reconnect goes and final outcome.