Re: Modem woes (Motorola SM56)

[gary <gstegmiller prodigy net>]

Luciano ES wrote:

> >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...

Winmodem is a name given to "software" modems. These modems are shipped with Windows drivers and software to make them a functional modem. The work is done by the CPU. Usually no vendors supply software drivers for Linux or Macintosh for these modems. There are some exceptions, but as you have found out, they are difficult to get working.

Software modems can be the on-board type used on motherboards and laptops, and about 90%+ of the PCI modems also fall into this category. There are a few exceptions of hardware modems being made to fit the PCI slot.

A hardware or controller based modem has a chip on the modem that does the work. It is also known as an intelligent modem because this modem controller chip has the built-in functions of a modem.

Hardware modems are often listed on the box as Windows, Linux, and Macintosh compatible. All operating systems have built in functionality for using this kind of modem so no special driver is needed.