Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005, rvijay07 wrote:

> --- On Mon 03/07, sindi keesan < keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org > wrote:
> From: sindi keesan [mailto: keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org]
>
> Do you have any other modems you could use instead of this one?  There <br>should 
> be a lot of free 28.8 or 33K ones around now, and most of the sites <br>I go to, 
> you can't tell the difference between that and 56K.

> The above is an excellent suggestion. I need to be on the lookout for 
> these. May also help convince some people to try Linux. How can one tell 
> what kind they are by just looking at them though ? Is their model etc., 
> written somewhere on the card ?


Most of my modems have dates either on the card itself (printed on front 
or back, sometimes on a smawhite label on the card or on a chip) or on one 
of the larger chips.

1998 or later is always 56K

1997 - early part of the year 33K or X2 (sometimes upgradeable to v90 
which is the only 56K standard that works now).  Starting around April 
1997 USR made them upgradeable.  Late 1997 probably 56K V90.

I have managed to upgrade USR modems made in April but not May 1997, and 
the 33Ks are not upgradeable but the X2s are.  Someone at this list told 
me how to upgrade modems and I did four.
1996 33K
1995 14.4K or 28.8K or 33K  (we have these all)
1990-1994 14.4K
1989 or older 2400 bps (I have not seen internal modems slower than this)
The above is based on our collection and may be a year off.


If you find 1995 or later, try it.  Go into a terminal program and type 
ati1, ati2, ati3... until you get some answer with 144 or 288 etc. in it.

You can also write down the card model number and/or the number of the 
largest chip and look them up online if there is no date.

For example, I have
1.  NEC chip, card labelled on back USRobotic, Copyright 1994,
with a white sticker 11/08/94  - 14.4Kbps

2.  Rockwell 95 chip, card is FW-8818 on front, white label on back says 
FCC ID ..144 288 V   - 28.8K

3.  ATT v32-.....'90   - 14.4K (v32 is 14.4K - see below)

4.  UMC chips with no date on them, but back of the card is labelled FCC 
ID:...1414V   P/N 5460000010045 PC1414UX A.c   - 14.4K but there was 
really no way to tell from looking at the card.

External modems are usually labelled with the speed and often with the 
protocol (v32bis, etc.)

v32 is 14.4
v32 is 28.8 or 33K
v90 is 56K
x2 is 56K but won't work with ISPs at 56K unless you can upgrade it - it 
will however work at 33K or at least 28.8K

Anything with DIP switches is unlikely to be faster than 28.8k.

Regarding 'recycling' 486s, I think you mean reusing.  We recycle the 486 
desktops and now any PI slower than 133MHz, taking apart into plastic, 
steel, aluminum, copper wire, and greenboard.

PCI modems are usually 56K winmodems and some ISA modems are also 
winmodems  (28-56K).  They can sometimes be made to work in linux if you 
have or compile the right drivers.  'Modern' distributions will work with 
them out-of-the-box.

People are now switching to broadband and we got three 56K external modems 
for $1 each that worked plus two from friends.  These are always hardware 
modems (work with DOS and linux).

It sounds like your ISP is doing something odd with your password, and 
whatever dialing program the other linuxes use does things differently.
pppd in BL3 is not 1995, it is I think 1999 (a later version).  The BL2 
dialer is a slightly later version.  Have you tried the 2-floppy BL2 with 
your modem?  It worked for me on one modem that would not work in BL3.