[CentOS] finding the right serial port, enabling & configuring it [was: Re: fax software]

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu> wrote:
> On Tuesday, March 29, 2011 02:07:46 pm Robert Heller wrote:
>> Unless you spend serious bucks, ALL *PCI* modems are win modems (there
>> are one or two very high-end 'industrial grade' PCI 'hardware' modems).
>> Many older *ISA* modems were 'hardware' modems and were meant for old
>> i586 and i486 systems that lacked the CPU cycles to handle a
>> controllerless modem (winmodem).  And ISA slots are pretty much
>> non-existent on modern motherboards.
>
> I have a couple of 'real hardware' PCI modems, neither of which were very expensive.  One is an ActionTec, and I bought it new-old-stock for $15.  The other is by Digitan, a DS560-558 that I got with a Sun Ultra 10 workstation.  Both are Lucent Venus chipsets and are full hardware controller PCI modems.
>
> I have a third one here somewhere that is a more expensive one, a Multitech, I think, but I haven't been able to lay hold on it.  There is a Multitech on eBay right now for $19.99; a real deal for an industrial-grade modem.
>
> For more information about modem chipsets, see http://www.modemsite.com/56k/chipset.asp and
> http://techpatterns.com/forums/about483.html

Not so much for laptops, but for anyone with servers, RocketPort makes
the cream of the crop. They make fabulous 8-port serial PCI and PCI-e
cards that just work, with all the standard modem software.

USB modems are going for less than $20 these days, and may present a
workable alternative if our original poster cannot find Winmodem
drivers.