Re: Modem woes (Motorola SM56)

["Luciano ES" <luc-rh BrazilianTranslation net>]

>From: gary <xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx>
>Subject: Re: Modem woes (Motorola SM56)
>This modem is plainly a Winmodem, and they are designed to work under Windows. In my opinion, they aren't worth the hassle of getting working.

	- - Wait a minute. Winmodems are those that come on-board, arent' they? I also have one of those, but it's not good, it uses part of my memory so I have it disabled on the motherboard. I dual boot with Windows (I really can't get rid of Windows at this time) and I don't want that modem on when I boot into Windows. Besides, it didn't work with my Lin distro either, so I just disabled the piece of junk. I really wish I could use my Motorola, which is good, at least in Windows. But it's a PCI board, does that qualify as a "Winmodem"? The term "Winmodem" has never been too clear to me. If it means it is "made for Windows", then we have an awful lot of "Winvideo", "Winsound" and "Winwhatever" on the market! ;-)  I've never seen any kind of card with "Linux-compatible" advertised on the box, or factory-provided drivers on the comapnion CD... It's a Win's world...

>Any hardware modem will work under Linux,and usually with no setup at all. I prefer the serial External modems. They cost a little more than internal modems, but you can use some of the money you saved by not buying Windows to buy a decent modem. I have not found an external modem that doesn't work with Linux.

	- - Cultural differences. In my country, external modems cost 10 TIMES as much as internal ones. Yes, I can see you flinch and say "- Wot?"

>Also, most internal ISA modems are hardware modems and work well with Linux. If you are running a newer computer, you probably won't have an ISA slot anymore. I've seen these modems on closeout lately in the $20-25 (USA) range.

	- - Right, I don't have one. Some more sophisticated motherboards come with an ISA slot and I do happen to have a 33,600 ISA modem. But these motherboards are pricey. You must have noticed by now that I live on a budget.

	Did you mention "not buying Windows"? I have Win 98, and this is the last release I will ever have.

	Thanks for the tips,
-- 
	Luciano Espirito Santo
	Santos, SP - Brasil