Like all ISPs, DSS Online has to purchase and use a vast amount of resources from local telephone companies. In our case, we specifically chose our new office, to a large extent because it was near the BellSouth Central Office (CO) in Valdosta, Georgia.

Like any immense organization, BellSouth has developed a bureaucracy all of its own. Every little change we order requires the participation of many organizations spread all over the Southeast, and the frequent, persistent failures that we've had -- lines disappearing, calls being delivered into black holes, bizarre, illogical `solutions' to problems, and those that just seem to disappear -- seem to reveal something far more sinister than a simple bureacracy. Thus, BellSouth has -- as a whole -- gained a title: The BEAST.

Nevertheless, many of the individual employees of BellSouth -- Beast Keepers, as they are affectionately known -- are perfectly nice people, working diligently and carefully to provide us the services we need. On 8 January 1999, one of those Beast Keepers, Larry Cook, showed us around The Beast's Lair: a BellSouth Central Office.

Enter Here to find images and description of our tour, as seen through the lens of a simple camera. Gaze deeply into the simple, electronic parts -- but never forget that this is

The BEAST's Lair

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