[ale] Share my frustration: what do you do for fax/data modems?

[Howard A Story]

Christopher Fowler wrote:

>Okay....
>
>I guess I need to explain some things here.  Remember that I deal with
>modems daily.  In fact a few today.
>
>1.  If it is too good to be true then it is not true.
>2.  Hardware modems cost more than $10
>3.  Repeat #2 10 times remembering #1.
>
>Call Ginstar and tell them you need a hardware modem.  They don't keep
>many around but they will sell you one.  I pay around $35-$50 ea.  
>I've never had problems getting hardware modems to work in Linux.
>
>Multi-Tech sells a USB external powered by USB.  No wall wart.  $125.
>Works great in 2.6 not so in 2.4.  Uses acm driver.  Driver has minimal
>tty support in 2.4 does not even support character processing.  So stty
>says one thing the truth is another.  I had to modify the driver to get
>it to support CRNL type features.  I hacked it in an get an occasional
>panic.
>
>The USB modem is the size of a standard ZDX.  They have one that is even
>smaller about the size of a USB ethernet dongle.  Very nice!
>
>Since I live in a world of serial I respect UARTs. In the good ole days
>UARTs were kings.  A true modem needs _no_ driver.  Any modem that
>requires one is not a true modem.  Just a DSP masking as one and will
>give you problems.  Reliable communications requires reliable hardware
>and to me that means a hardware modem is the only answer.
>
>
>On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 15:50 -0400, Vernard Martin wrote:
>  
>
>>Just like Byron, I am doing modem stuff at the moment.
>>
>>The situation: I have a Dell Itanium machine running RedHat Enterprise 
>>Linux. It has no USB ports. I have a USB-to-Serial adapater plugged in 
>>and its working fine. I'm using an external  USRobotics modem to do SMS 
>>messages with the Nagios monitoring system.
>>
>>Since the machine is a rackmount, I'd like to eliminate the external 
>>modem and its power supply brick and replace it with an internal modem.  
>>But the problem of course if finding an internal PCI modem that is 
>>supported under linux as well. I don't mind spending money on this as 
>>its a enterprise critical system.
>>
>>My current attempts at finding a solution was to purchase a $10 modem at 
>>Frys that claimed it had linux support. Unfortunately its mostly linux 
>>2.4 kernel support. The 2.6 support doesn't complain cleanly and I'm 
>>trying to muddle through that.
>>
>>Where can I buy a modem that will definitely work with linux?
>>
>>Vernard
>>_______________________________________________
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>>Ale at ale.org
>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>    
>>
>
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>  
>
Not to plug Multi-tech but I love there customer support on their 
products.  And the Modems are made for commercial use.  Last time I 
looked they had a 10 year warranty. 

Adrin