Dell Broadcom V.92 Soft Modem in Puppy?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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jcoder24
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Joined: Fri 06 May 2005, 12:33
Location: Barbados

Dell Broadcom V.92 Soft Modem in Puppy?

#1 Post by jcoder24 »

Has anyone gotten the 'Broadcom V.92 Soft Modem' that comes with some Dell Dimension systems to work with puppy?

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#2 Post by Guest »

Ok looks like if you were running RedHat 7.3 you may have a chance as DELL has released drivers, but unfornately I don't think it will work as a large part of it is a pre-compiled lib locked onto that particular release and std kernel. As for Puppy it isn't going to work. Splash out and get an external serial port modem, even under windows you'll notice things a bit snappier

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Flash
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Softmodems vs Hardware modems

#3 Post by Flash »

In case there's anyone who doesn't know about it, there are two kinds of dial-up modems: stand-alone hardware modems, and so-called Softmodems or Winmodems.

Softmodems implement much of their modemly functions in software. The computer's cpu actually runs code which implements the function of a modem. Some Softmodem cards have only the minimum hardware that is required to interface with the telephone line, and A-to-D and D-to-A converters to interface with the computer and everything else is done by the computer's cpu.

Stand-alone hardware modems take commands from the computer and, of course, the data it is their job to transmit, but otherwise do their job without bothering the computer's cpu.

The problem with using Softmodems in Linux is that the special software to implement them is mostly written to run in Windows. Some softmodems have had drivers written for them to run in Linux, making them into Linmodems. To find out more, try the linmodem website.

Softmodems can perform as well as or better than hardware modems. The first computer I owned had one in it which consistently connected at higher speed (in Windows of course) than the name-brand hardware modem I bought to use with Linux. Unfortunately, this was a PCI card modem, which most Linux distributions seem to assume is a Softmodem. So it turned out to be a waste of money. Fortunately, about the time I got interested in Linux, high-speed internet became available where I live. I bought a Zoom 5001 PCI card cable modem and haven't tried to use a dial-up modem since. Life is good. 8)

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