Re: dialup modem recommendation for debian sagre?
[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.]
In article <56gaQ-7Un-9@gated-at.bofh.it>, John Hasler wrote:
> Bruno Buys writes:
>> I moved recently, and there´s no easy/cheap broadband in the new
>> address. So, what do I need to run a dialup modem on my debian sarge?
>
> Hook up your modem, run pppconfig, and follow instructions.
>
>> Guess the best model I can find would be a hard pci us-robotics or
>> similar...
Be very careful there. There are many kinds of "hardware" PCI
modems. Almost all of them contain some signal processing hardware,
which is what distinguishes them from the typical "software"
modem. But hardly any of them contain hardware which emulates
the traditional 16550 serial port or the defacto standard Hayes
"AT" command set behind it. Almost all "hardware" modems
for sale on Ebay will not work with Debian out of the box.
There are many 3Com/USR "hardware" PCI modem types. Only one of
those actually emulates 16550 and Hayes "ATDT" and it appears at
a strange serial port location. Knoppix won't find it.
Sarge won't find it.
You will have to research and fiddle around and try nonfree drivers
and it is a huge pain in the ass. 16550+Hayes emulation just never
caught on in the PCI modem market, and it's a damn shame.
(I suspect it was because of Hayes' stupid software patent on
their plusplusplus delay feature. 16550 emulation isn't expensive
any more, and helps performance, but the Hayes royalty was expensive.
Yet another unexpected harmful effect of software patents.)
The Ebay vendors do not know this. Most of them do not care either.
They know nothing but Microsoft, and in that world all modems come
with a CD which automatically installs an appropriate driver.
They will sell you a "hardware" modem that "works with Linux!"
and throw in a CD with some random driver they downloaded from
linmodems.org but never tested, and you will never get it working.
>
> No. The best you could do is buy an old USR external modem on eBay.
>
>> (there are winmodems available, but I´m avoiding these). Are they debian
>> friendly?
>
> Some winmodems can be used with Linux but they are not at all friendly.
"Winmodem" is a 3Com trademark. There are many non-3Com "hardware"
modems on Ebay that are useless crap because nobody has written
the part of the Linux driver to do the AT command set.
Web sites like linmodems.org and start.at/modem are years out of date,
and unmaintained, and full of wrong recommendations and instructions
which DO NOT WORK in the general case.
They are also full of anectdotes ("it works for me!!!") from
people who just happened to get lucky.
I assure you, for every "it works for me!!!" cluebie there are
ten frustrated would be Linux users who gave up on Linux and went
back to MS-Windows because they could not get their garbage PCI
"hardware" modem working.
Save yourself hours of frustration. PCI modems are an MS-Windows-only
thing. Stay away. Buy an external modem for your serial port.
This goes double for Card-bus. Card-bus is the PCI-like "PCMCIA"
slot in most laptops. You will probably never get a Cardbus modem
working.
Cameron
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