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external modem problems [solved]


wade
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Their site says the modem has its own controller and is compatible with linux.

 

I checked the boot messages to make sure the serial driver had the right IRQ, it does (IRQ 3) so i don't think it's that. Modem is working alright on another machine (not running linux).. I'm going to try the alternative distro reccomended and see if that works any better (but i can't get my money back on mandrake 'cos i've opened the box).. pah... anyone got any other suggestions?

 

i'd like to try the modem on the second serial port and see if that makes any difference, but the second one isn't listed on my BIOS so i can't set and don't know it's IO/IRQ numbers...

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That is interesting. There should be 2 ports in the bios, unless one is off. Port 1 can generate port 3 and port 2 can generate port 4. The differences in the related ports are dma rather than irq.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello moderators, can you mark this down as sort of solved?

 

I have now got my home pc running on linux and with a working internet connection, which is definitely progress. I still have no idea what was wrong before, no matter what or how many times i tried, my modem wouldn't talk back to my pc. I only got the modem in the first place because i wanted to try linux and everything i read suggested that it would make things much easier if i used an external one. It didn't.

 

after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, i decided the problem must be with the version of mandrake that i had. i couldn't get the alternative kanotix distro gowater suggested (work blocked it) so i got a copy of SUSE slick with a magazine - this initially gave me the same problems trying to use the external modem that mandrake did. However, the configuration tools with SUSE (yast?) did detect my internal modem, suggested a package i needed to get it working, and the package was there on the disc provided. I installed it and voila, my internal winmodem was up and running. it seemed very straight forward after trying to get my head round irqs and ios, bios and the like.

 

My advice to anyone experiencing similar problems would be to ensure that what you are reading is up to date - linux might have struggled with winmodems a few years ago but it looks like new releases take them in their stride - don't waste money on an external modem until you are sure you need it. (unless you want to buy a second hand phonic pro v.92 - any takers?)

 

Thanks to all the posters who chipped in trying to help.

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another thing that may have been a good step (if you knew what distro you were going to try at that time) would have been to check the hardware database, this is just a suggestion if in the future you'd like to try mandriva again. it was actually hard to find on their webpage...don't know why they buried so deep in the site.

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