"Box A" is an ONT or optical network terminal, which is really just a media converter with some additional intelligence related to how GPON schedules use of the

"Box A" is an ONT or optical network terminal, which is really just a media converter with some additional intelligence related to how GPON schedules use of the media. It's more or less the same thing as an ADSL modem (actual modem only) except that GPON usually uses Ethernet while ADSL usually uses ATM. But both are used the other way sometimes. For "Box B" you can use anything you wish as long as it supports PPPoE. Contact CenturyLink by phone or chat to tell them you need your PPP credentials, they'll have no trouble giving them to you. The only trick besides PPP is that CenturyLink usually uses a VLAN for customer equipment on their GPON, but that's pretty common with ethernet over ADSL as well so routers made for use with a DSL modem should have it in their UIs alongside the PPP info. Unfortunately most newer routers are made without this use case in mind so there may not be support, in which case you can always upgrade to something a little more configurable or use a computer as a router. You can ask the CSR for the VLAN ID but in every case I've seen it's 201. I've done this a number of times and never had the CSR give me any trouble. They also don't seem to keep very good track of who has CL-owned CPE, I've ended up with "free" CenturyLink routers a couple of times because they fell through the cracks when switching to my own.