The LINUX BARRIER: Dial Up Modems

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syzygy
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#61 Post by syzygy »

luckily my toshiba lappy, has a Lucent DSP1648 (Mars 3) PUPmodem.

Not sure if this has been mentioned previously, but this site has listings of Linux friendly modems & their manufacturers:-

http://start.at/modem

One such manufacturer is Dynalink. See this link:-

http://www.dynalink.com.au/support/linux.htm

seeya

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aahhaaa
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#62 Post by aahhaaa »

afterthought: I don't know which would be the right forum for it, but I'd be curious to see a poll on just how people are communicating with this forum.
dial-up using Windows?
dial-up using 'other' Linux?
dial-up using Puppy?
broadband, etc...

any bets on where the majority are? :D

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aahhaaa
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#63 Post by aahhaaa »

G'dye Syz- good info post! :D

Sage
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#64 Post by Sage »

Some folks just don't want to listen to good advice!
All internal modems lack l.e.d. signalling lamps, lack an on/off switch so cannot be reset or stopped suddenly, often need a specific driver and often insist on slot 4 installation. They are better than Winmodems, but lack general application and aren't portable.
QED.

syzygy
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#65 Post by syzygy »

sage,

you are absolutely correct. now if you can just convince barry to remove pupget support for lucent, slmodems & conexant modems, puppy will be a winmodem free zone. (can we also do something about proprietary bioses booting up our puters?).

Sage
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#66 Post by Sage »

No problem. Just lift the proprietary label from your EEPROM BIOS chip to find it's true ID, buy a batch of blanks for a few beans each and write your own BIOS - one for each day of the week/day of the year?!

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Flash
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#67 Post by Flash »

Check out the interest in this thread about HCF/HSF (soft)modem drivers.

aahhaaa, I hope your ebay seller can make that modem work in Puppy. I bought a USR/3Com 5610B modem a few years ago but could not get it to work in Mandrake. The modem would dial my ISP and negotiate a connection with the ISP's modem, then hang up. I switched to high-speed cable internet before I got it figured out.

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aahhaaa
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#68 Post by aahhaaa »

Flash- thanks for the crossref; seems many people are plugging at this! He said it was working... :roll: Prob'ly back into the Fedora Core right now.

:wink:

Sage
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#69 Post by Sage »

Very belatedly, I looked up BarryK's advice on modems. What he says is very clear; it concords with professional views in the antipodes. For those who haven't read his advice yet, I'll give you a clue:
Nice one, Barry!

Guest

#70 Post by Guest »

Barry: "Jcoder24 has done some superb work getting HSF/HCF analog modems to work in Puppy. I would have liked these to be available via PupGet as well, but have run out of time -- I want to obtain a compatible modem first -- so targetting it for 1.0.6 ..."
24Sept05, http://www.goosee.com/puppy/news.htm

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aahhaaa
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#71 Post by aahhaaa »

... I keep thinking about syzygy's tiny little Bill Gatz hiding away in the BIOS... 8)
dang, wish he hadn't brought that up! :wink:

Guest

#72 Post by Guest »

there's peoples working on this. check linuxbios, openbios & freebios. result for 8086 however seems in distant future

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ezeze5000
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inexpensive External Modem

#73 Post by ezeze5000 »

(Quote)
The Live CD movement recognizes that, as did the graphical desktop. BUT... if the average uncommitted computer user is can't make Linux communicate in something under an hour of fiddling, I'd submit that 9 out of 10 people will give up with the impression that Linux is too complicated for them.

This 'fail' scenario is hidden in the multitude of distros, machines, and other factors facing the new user; but it is the main hurdle now that a desktop appears automatically. From the desktop, with a connection, they can get work done, while learning the Linux way.

This link might help fix this problem.

http://www.acortech.com/.sc/ms/cat/Modem--External

I haven't tried this modem (yet), but it is a hardware modem and they say it works with Linux.

(Edit)
Well here I am posting this on my new Diamond SupraExpress 56e PRO modem.

They really do work just fine!
Last edited by ezeze5000 on Sat 05 Nov 2005, 04:58, edited 2 times in total.

Sage
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#74 Post by Sage »

The SupraExpress, like all serial modems, will work out-of-the-box on any OS without specific drivers. At that price, it'd be worth taking up the offer to buy ten and give them away to friends intent on Linux. The Aceex is a USB device and best avoided.

Yogi
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#75 Post by Yogi »

After seeing all the interest in this topic just thought I'd add my two cents. Back seven months ago when I made my foray into Linux I ran into the winmodem wall and after much research and frustration I realized that the quickest and best way for me to get access via dialup was to get an external/hardware modem. The prices varied from approx $15 to $80. I bought the following and it worked great. Puppy was off and running.

http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_in ... ts_id=3464

I might add that I've used this modem successfully with DSL, Knoppix, Sam, and Mepis. Today I have DSL for $14.95/mo. and use Puppy to do all my surfing. Excellent bandwidth by the way. May the broadband wars continue!

p.s. If you do opt to buy this particular modem from this site the only option you need is the "upgrade to retail box" as it has everything.

Sage
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#76 Post by Sage »

The real danger is if the greedy B's manage to persuade board makers to remove the last serial port, just as happened with the last ISA slot (we got that wonderful AMR slot instead!!!) and the FDD. In my view, so doing would require the removal of "computer" under the Trades Description Acts, since RS232 provides rather more than just modem access.

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TrailerTrash
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Re: The LINUX BARRIER: Dial Up Modems

#77 Post by TrailerTrash »

This is not Puppy's fault- the entire Linux community snobs at dial-up folks.
Some people you might not expect are stuck with it- like most of those who grow the food you eat . Believe it or not, we really need computers in the boonies too, for stuff like weather predictions and crop spraying.



Amen x10 to infinity on that one amigo... :lol:

I am just a few miles east of San Diego, in the desert where I suppose I'm lucky to have a private telephone line.... Broadband? Hah! Only federal law and subsidies will bring broadband to everyone, not any for profit company. Oh I could have satellite if I wanted to change back to MS and accept punitive downloading restrictions on a daily basis. Screw that idea.

And while we're at it does anyone know a way to get outfits like Ubuntu to actually answer my question about why they quit the wvdial gui after 8.04? :evil: Now that I am stuck on the Pup the question is merely academic you understand but the fact that I can't get anyone at Canonical to respond is a pisser. And, Ubuntu ain't the only offender. :x

OK rant over...

Thank God for the Dogmeisters down under. OK I guess there are a few up here on top as well...

I don't mind a turd on my lawn once in a while so long as the Pup stays alive in my computer.

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Digital_Dissident
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Dial-Up for Laptops

#78 Post by Digital_Dissident »

As a dial-up user, this thread is of great interest and relevance to me.

Something that seems to have been overlooked in this thread is the additional inconvenience and encumbrance to Laptop users of having to use an external modem.

Ironically, this is one area in which it seems that older laptops provided a distinct advantage: that of the
PCMICIA or 'PC-Card' modem. These credit-card-sized devices would slide easily and fully into slots on the side of the computer, providing full dial-up and fax functionality (voice answering too). Nothing extra to carry around, weigh you down, stick-out* or hang from the laptop. (*Other than the small X-Jack)

Thus, it is on my ten-year-old Dell Latitude C600 that I am able to successfully use a 3Com 3cxm556 PCMCIA fax/modem that I got on eBay for $5-. (Ten years ago, the exact same modem retailed for close to $200.00. Five or six years ago, I found it online for $25.00)

But not on my five-year-old Inspiron b120, as it only has a mini-PCI slot but no PCMICA.

And since the internal Winmodem in this Celeron 1.4 GHZ machine with 2 GB of RAM, 15.6" screen and three USB 2.0 ports has not worked in any of the GNU/Linux distros I have tried, I am reduced to having to having to use the twice-as-old Pentium III machine with only 384 MB of RAM, one USB 1.1 port and a 14.1" screen to access the Internet.

I found the following two external USB modems at NewEgg that I am considering:

U.S. Robotics USR5637
Currently listed at $44.99

Rosewill RNX-56 USB (Conexant)
Currently listed at $24.99, with a free PCI modem with purchase promotional deal

The occupation of a USB port and, often, the obstruction of an additional one or more can be an issue, especially for a laptop user.

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Digital_Dissident
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Dial-Up Modem Update

#79 Post by Digital_Dissident »

1.) A Long Overdue Update to My Above Post:

I bought the USR 5637 USB modem and it has been detected by and worked in Puppy as well as each of the several other distros I have tried with it.

2.) Unfortunately, however, the 3Com 3CXM556 PCMCIA modem I described in my previous post (fully hardware-based and self-contained) was not detected by Wary Puppy 5.1.1. Nor by Legacy OS 2010.

I don't know what happened because this modem did work in Puppy 4.3.1 ( And likely in Lucid Puppy 5.0.1 as well, though I don't recall the latter for certain). This is all with the same computer: a Dell Latitude C600 laptop, as described in my previous post.

Bruce B

Re: Dial-Up Modem Update

#80 Post by Bruce B »

Digital_Dissident wrote: I don't know what happened because this modem did work in Puppy 4.3.1 ( And likely in Lucid Puppy 5.0.1 as well, though I don't recall the latter for certain). This is all with the same computer: a Dell Latitude C600 laptop, as described in my previous post.
Thanks for the updates. I wondered how this post came back.

One of my complaints with Puppy is hardware support is not static
enough.

I want it to be static, meaning don't lose any support, while at the same
time improving hardware support.

I don't get what I want, but I have plenty of work arounds.

In your case where the hardware is same and various Puppy versions
support or don't support.

? ? ?

Compromises. Find one that will. Or try other distros.

or ? ? ?

Ideas ? ? ?

~

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