/proc permissions and hsf modems

[andrej hocevar <ah@siol.net>]

lately i've inherited my brother's rockwell modem, which is a hsf,
meaning, as far as i know, it's a winmodem. so i took a look a
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Conexant+Rockwell-modem-HOWTO/hsf.html
the instruction say to change the content of /proc/pci. 
which is the problem -- i cannot do it as i can't change the
permissions! 
what's the answer? or is there another way of making such a modem
work? (as you see, i can do without as well, but my own modem is
supposably slower ...)

andrej