text: Trial by Fire (Forbes.com) Forbes.com - Covad Communications (2, COVD) deserves a gold star simply for surviving the Internet wipeout. Rivals like Rhythms and NorthPoint are memories. In the 1990s Covad built the nation's largest digital subscriber line (DSL) network, offering rapid net access, but fell into Chapter 11 and got delisted from Nasdaq. Now the company is back from bankruptcy, trading on the o-t-c bulletin board and narrowing its losses. For 2004's first half the red ink shrank 66 to  #36;21 million. Revenues increased a healthy 18 to  #36;216 million.