Re: [Nolug] online

John D. Tiedeman wrote:
> U.S. Robotics 56K *external* works fine with Linux. Could the internal
> be an entirely different design?

Yes.

External connections happen through the serial port. Linux knows how to
talk to modems through the serial port -- PPP will just use the standard
AT commands.

Internal modems could provide a serial port for communicating with the
host system, but that would be slower than a direct connection. So most
provide some alternative connection on the PCI bus. When the
manufacturer doesn't provide drivers for this connection, Linux users
are screwed.

Also, many internal modems don't have the hardware that their external
counterparts do. They rely on the host CPU for a lot of their work --
some internal modems are just sound cards hooked up to a phone line. In
these cases, Linux needs to have drivers that do a lot more than just
communicate with the modem. Again, if the manufacturer doesn't provide
Linux drivers or the specs to build the drivers, you're screwed.

That said, http://linmodems.org/ provides a lot more information and
some drivers.

Mark.

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