So let me get this straight most Internal modems are WinModems. Were as all
External modems aren't WinModems?
SK
Not quite. First, although it's often used generically, winmodem is
actually a real name of a ... US Robotics? product. So some "winmodems"
are labeled as such and others not. Bummer, right? MOST PCI internal
modems will not function with Linux but many ISA modems will. I don't have
much experience with external but I believe they mostly (all?) work.
Note that there is nothing inherently incompatible here. This would be a
non-issue IF the manufacturers either supplied Linux drivers or opened
their hardware/firmware to Linux developers. But they don't/won't (mostly,
see Lucent's linmodem binary-only) because they cannot stand to have
everyone see their handiwork (because it is so good, no doubt).
You should take a look at the hardware compatibility lists and maybe do a
search for 'linux and winmodem' and perhaps 'linmodem'. You want to
identify particular models that others have tried and work fine. Here is a
Yahoo search that looked interesting on a quick review: