Re: dial-up modem usage
On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 08:54:39PM -0500, Rob Owens wrote:
> > On Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:16:12 -0500, Rob Owens wrote:
> >
> > > I'm setting up a Debian system for a friend, and he uses a dial-up
> > > modem. It's been many years since I dealt with a modem, so I could use
> > > a few tips.
> > >
> Thanks for the tips, everyone. But it seems I have forgotten more about
> modems than I realized.
>
> I'm now using gnome-ppp as a dialer, which uses wvdial as a backend (I
> think). I'm also using martian-modem, which provides a driver for my
> Agere WinModem. Besides that, I'm testing with an external modem (usb
> connection).
>
> I can get gnome-ppp to recognize both modems. But when I attempt to
> dial, I don't hear a dialtone or any dialing. Almost immediately the
> application says something like "sending password", and it hangs there.
> Of course it's going to hang -- it has not connected yet.
>
> So I'm thinking maybe I need some kind of initialization string for the
> modem. Are they specific to a certain model of modem? Is there
> something else I should be trying?
>
My problem was that I hadn't specified a username and password -- only a
phone number. For some reason, that caused dialing to fail, jumping
right to sending the (non-existent) username and password.
The other problem was gnome-ppp. It didn't hold its settings.
Sometimes I needed to logout and/or reboot in order to change the
account settings. Switching to wvdial eliminated that variable.
Also, I stuck with the Agere WinModem and used martian-modem. That
seemed to work just fine. If it was my computer, I would have switched
to a hardware modem. But this was a freebie installation of Debian on a
friend's crashed Windows machine.
I set up a launcher in the Gnome panel to edit the wvdial settings in
gedit (phone number, etc.), and another launcher to run wvdial in a
terminal.
-Rob
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