If anyone cares, the Motorola / Netopia DSL Router has been on the web for a week and working quite well. Consistent speed, low latency, and absolutely equal or better than my DSL performance has ever been.
Poked around the router logs last night and found zero bad packets incoming, zero bad packets outgoing, no CRC errors in either direction and a s/n ratio of 30 dB. It may be a while before it wrinkles a packet.
So............. Thanks to W9GB for being a second set of eyes for me on the web and if any of you should see one of these going cheap at a thrift shop:

...consider taking it home. Mine is a keeper. The 22247-62-10NA model is generic and has more bells & whistles in the ROM while the -100T version I have is AT&T Netopia specific but can be re-configured to play nice with Windstream DSL. Just don't believe everything you read in the downloadable documentation about the default IP for the setup utility (do a hard reset then use ipconfig to find it). And don't expect to find any flash ROM updates from AT&T or Arrisi for the 100T version. It has been orphaned. I didn't have the stones to try flashing it with the 10NA ROM (which is available from Motorola) and I can't think of any good reason to do so short of last hope / desperation / gross stupidity. Forcing alien firmware on the 'other' hardware is rarely a plan with a future.
BTW: As a general rule thrift shop goodies do not come with the factory wall wart. Be sure you scrounge up a good substitute. A while back my old router was acting a bit flaky and was cured by a bigger & better wart. Spec for the router was 12vdc @ 600 mils and the wart was rated 12vdc @ 700 mils. In a perfect world that would be OK but an 800 mil wart played better. You'll also find a variety of power cubes and such at thrift shops with a selection that changes on a weekly basis. If you don't find what you need today, stop by the next time you're in the area. They're usually cheap and no better place to stock up on spares.