[Discuss] External 56k Modems

[Patrick]

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 21:28:55 -0700
"Brian Burger" wrote:

> Anyone got a recommend for a basic external dialup modem?

I've got a Xircom dual-purpose ethernet/56k dialup PCMCIA
card, CBEM56G-100.  The surprising thing is that it's tiny;
without the dongles, there's nothing sticking out of the slot.
You'd expect something that small to be a winmodem, but it isn't
[although I had assumed it would be, before taking the time to
mess with it].  Can also send and recieve FAXes, including my
resume.  I got the job, btw.  :-)

If you can find one, just plug it in and use /dev/ttyS1 for
dialup.

> 
> I know zip about dialup, but I've got a relative who is going to be
> using it - the hand-me-down PC she's got is (barely) new enough not to
> have a built-in modem, though.
> 
> One that works with Linux is (naturally) preferred; she's currently
> got a buggy, slow-as-shite Win98 install but I'm thinking seriously
> about Xubuntu or Ubuntu for her machine, assuming the modem hardware
> will play nice in a userfriendly way.

I'm using Xubuntu, but if it's fast enough to run Ubuntu, that's
probably a better place to start.  There are a lot of graphical
configuration tools, and software in general that rely on the
GNOME libraries now.  Finding stuff that will run with just the
basic GTK+ GUI is a little tricky, and probably won't get any
easier.

Either way, you might also want to go with the 6.10 Edgy Eft
release.  A lot of things broke in Feisty Fawn, including
wireless.  I can help you with the swap problem too [also affects
Feisty, I think].

I done it before.  S'fun.  :-)

The `Networking' GUI configuration tool in Xubuntu won't work for
dialup.  Instead you'll have to open a terminal and type;
    sudo pppconfig
and take it from there.  [Presents the user with a set of
dialogues for setting up PPP options, so it shouldn't be too much
of the command-line, too soon for a beginner.]

After that it's just pon / poff to dial out or close a running
connection.

> 
> At least not having a built-in modem means I can avoid the whole
> winmodem freak show, which I gather is a mess under Linux.

Don't know.  The one in this Compaq Armada 1700 is just gathering
dust.

> 
> New inexpensive modems would be good; if someone's got a old reliable
> one gathering dust in a closet, I'll take it for a fair price.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Brian

No problem,

Patrick.