It's a "worthless winmodem". I'd suggest throwing it in the trash and replacing it with an external serial (not USB) modem. I note that as of this evening, Newegg.com has several such modems, starting from a low of $17.99 and going up from there. I have no idea if any of them are any good, YMMV.
OTOH maybe someone else can suggest suitable drivers for the winmodem. I refuse to use the darn things.
(actually, I lucked out--I found a great industrial-strength Multi-Tech external modem on ebay a few years ago. it served wonderfully for several years until we got cable here at the house. I keep it around in case emergencies arise.)
indeed - i use a few serial based US Robotics modems that connect to our paging system to alert in case of network failure. they just work and winmodems dont.