[Techtalk] Modems

[TechChiq]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 14:26:07 +0700, Robin Hood <RobinHood42 at clickta.com> 
wrote:

> Can anybody recommend me a few brandnames for linux compatible modems?
> What brands/chipsets are you all using at home?
> I have been looking around, and they all say on the box "requires 
> windows",

I was going through the same thing earlier this month. :) A friend gave me 
a 3Com/USRobotics ISA modem (model # 5687). On the box it did say it 
requires Windows, and in my version of linux (Pink Tie 9, an RH9 clone) it 
didn't auto-detect it (Kppp said "No modem found"), but I set up Kppp to 
use /dev/tty1 (serial port com 2) and it works fine anyway. :) It's a 
hardware based modem.

Basically, you want to look for "Controller-based" or "hardware-based" 
when shopping for a modem. There is a 3Com/USRobotics PCI hardware based 
modem and also Zoom makes one (they also have lightning protection of 
sorts built in that works - I know I had Zoom's that got struck before and 
worked afterwards). But I would strongly recommend a nice USRobotic 
external serial port modem. Those are usually not winmodems (ie. requires 
windows). But you still have to really read the specs because I did find 
some winmodems that were external.

Stay away from anything Motorola, particularly the SM56 chipset. Those 
don't even work in Windows and not at all in Linux. I just got rid of one 
of those. :(

Also, I've heard (but have no personal experience) that Lucid brand modems 
(did I get the name right?) are actually winmodems that are linux 
compatible.

For more information on LinModems (ie. winmodems workable in Linux) check 
out http://www.linmodems.org/ and for sm56 users: http://www.sm56.tk/

Hope this helps.

TechChiq

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