On Friday September 05 2003 01:37 pm, dsavage@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > On Friday September 5, 2003 Stephen Carville <carville@xxxxxxx> wrote > > > I finally got the internal modem (PCtel 2304 WT v.92) working on my Dell > > C840 and my wife's i8500 but the performance is less than stellar and > > the modmes have nasty tendency to get stuck in screwy state > > necessitating a reboot. This is not good. > > > > I'm considering going to a USB modem instead. Anyone have any > > experience (or horror stories) to shares on the subject? Price is > > important but I've seen some for as little as $40. From what I've > > read, USB modems are "real" modems with the USB replacing the serial > > cable on traditional external modems. If true, it would be a better > > solution than the $&^%ing winmodem I'm trying to use now. > > Stephen, > > If your machine has a DB9 COMx port available, I think a classic external > modem would be your best choice. A genuine firmware-type (not > controller-less winmodem) external modem with an old fashioned serial port > should cost about the same as one with USB, and will be well-supported > with no surprises or gotchas. This is for when we are traveling so size and portability are important. At home I have DSL with a Linux box handling routing, NAT, and firewalling. My first choice was a PCMCIA modem. Unfortunately those are still pretty expensive so I looked at the basic external modems which are larger than I was hoping for. After reading a bit more it looks like there are a lot of braindead USB modems too. You could be right that a serial external is still the best way right now. > My home is 23,000 cable feet from the nearest telephone central office, so > DSL is not available to me. And as a DirecTV subscriber, neither is cable > modem service (yeah, I know about DirectWay: Windows only!). I'm still > using an external modem connected to a Hawking Technologies Internet > Sharing Server (model PN8228 > http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=100). The ISS connects to > my 10/100 Etherswitch along with four PCs, two printers, and a SonicBlue > DVR. None of those has to be configured for modem operation. The ISS > functions as a NAT gateway that auto-dials my ISP whenever any machine > tries to connect to an outside IP address. The technology is a bit old, > but it works very well. You might consider it as an easy way for both your > Dells to access your ISP independently via modem. > > --Doc Savage > Fairview Heights, IL -- Stephen Carville http://www.heronforge.net/~stephen/gnupgkey.txt ------------------------------------------------------------------ Right wing socialists hate privacy as much as left wing socialists hate guns. -- Shrike-list mailing list Shrike-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/shrike-list
