Linux and SBC DSL

[Chris Wagner]

I realize that many of you do not have much of a preference to Bell's 
DSL (at least that is the idea I get from many of the posts lately, 
especially ones that refer to downstream speeds), but that's what I 
have in my area (Independence) and I was thinking of possibly setting 
up one of the older machines I have at home on an older version of 
Mandrake (8.1 - I think).

Anyway, I was wondering how much of a chore it is to setup the router 
and get all the boxes sitting behind it to work right.

I realize that I can run DHCP on most routers for the backside, but 
for the purposes that I'm wanting, I'd like to consider running 
static, unless I'm off my rocker and can do everything I want to with 
DHCP.

My question is this:

How does the router acquire the IP from Bell?

Do most routers work with DHCP (as far as negotiating its own IP)?

Thanks,

Chris