buying a 56K modem...

[Carroll Grigsby]

On Wednesday 20 December 2006 20:51, fredex wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 19, 2006 at 12:41:40PM +0000, James Wilkinson wrote:
> > fredex wrote (about modems):
> > > both external AND serial, NOT USB.
> >
> > Um. The USB standards people seem to have provided standardised
> > interfaces for a lot of things, including external drives and modems.
> > Not all USB modems bother to implement the CDC ACM standard, but some
> > do. I understand that those that do implement this standard should work
> > under Fedora.
> >
> > If you have the kernel-doc package installed, read
> > /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-2.6.18/Documentation/usb/acm.txt . It says
> > "Check for ACM compliance before buying."
> >
> > Come to that, when I plugged my old (Motorola) mobile phone in, Fedora
> > automatically created a ttyAMC0 device node for it.
> >
> > Having said all that, the last modem I used regularly was a 56K ISA
> > internal one which wasn't even plug'n'play. It was ideal for Linux. So I
> > can't recommend USB CDC ACM modems based on personal experience.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> >
> > James.
>
> James:
>
> Thanks for the clarification.
>
> The reaosn I suggested SERIAL and not USB is because I know that some
> USB modems work, some don't, and I personally have/had no idea how
> to tell without first buying it. So, to avoid giving the OP a bum
> steer I suggested what should be foolproof (assuming you can find a
> serial modem in the stores these days).
>
> Fred


Fred:
The big office supply chains (Staples, Office Depot and similar) still sell 
honext-to-goodness real 56K serial modems -- usually Zoom. I suspect that 
they are sold to low traffic SOHO market for FAX and answering machine 
service. Back in my DOS days, I used a PCTools program that served as a phone 
directory, dialer and call logger. Very convenient. Hmmm...
-- cmg