[CentOS] Inquiry:External USB modem and Remote PC Access?

[John R Pierce]

hadi motamedi wrote:
> Dear All
> Please be informed that I checked for the presence of internal modem 
> on my CentOS server , as the followings :
> #dmesg |grep -i modem
> #lspci |grep -i modem
> #lshw |grep -i modem
> According to the output , it seems that my CentOS client does not 
> contain internal modem . So I decided to add external USB modem and 
> make use of an PCAnyWhere like application that enables for Remote PC 
> Access . Can you please do me favor and let me know how can I add the 
> external USB modem to my CentOS host and please propose for an 
> PCAnyWhere like application that can be installed on my CentOS client 
> and enables for remote dialup connection (as the PCAnyWhere does for 
> the MS Windows clients) ?

I would use a serial modem, assuming your server has a serial port...  
and then configure a tty on that serial port, along with the modem 
autoanswer.

CentOS has mgetty, so in /etc/inittab, you add a line like...

S3:345:respawn:/sbin/mgetty -x3 ttyS0    (for com1 which is dev/tty0)

and configure your modem options in   /etc/mgetty+sendfax/mgetty.config

now, you can use a dialup terminal program such as minicom, hyperterm, 
etc and dial into that modem on the CentOS system, and get a serial 
login prompt.


sadly, I haven't set this sort of thing up in so many years, Ive 
forgotten all the specifics.  these days, we just use ssh over the internet