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Encore Modem Under Linux

I was asked by a client to put up a fax server using hylafax. Hylafax is cool, and I'd been waiting for an excuse to play with it. The client provided the hardware, and with the box came an [external Encore modem http://www.encore-usa.com/product.php?id=30]. The thing gave me quite a bit of trouble, so I decided to blog my struggles, in the hopes that someone else can benefit from them.

[The modem http://www.wei.cl/catalogue/product.htm?pcode=MFING28800] is ostensibly a hardware modem, but as far as I can tell from searching around, it started life as a software-based winmodem. It's really cheap-looking, and makes funny chirps at times. However, they cost only $38, which is about half the usual price of an external modem. However, unless I can make this thing work, it's useless to me under Linux.

Factoids

manufacturer: Cirrus Logic – Ambient – Intel
windows-only drivers
[chipset http://www.modemsite.com/56k/intel.asp] ([google http://www.google.com/search?q=ambient+%2Bmodem+%2Bchipset&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8])
[extended command set http://www.modemsite.com/56k/cirrus.asp] — I suspected this, and wasn't surprised when I found this page.

Behaviour

I was able to detect the modem using YaST (I'm running SuSE Linux, version 9.1), while plugged into the serial port on the box. I ran several tests:

dialup to my ISP using KDE's Kinternet tool — it would connect and authenticate, and create the ppp0 interface, but not manage to get an IP assigned to ppp0.
dialup via wvdial (my old favorite) — authentication failed every time I attempted to dial.
sending faxes via hylafax — this seems to work just fine.
receiving faxes via hylafax — this fails at the last minute. The remote fax machine says the fax is complete, except for getting the callback number, or similar (I wasn't at the remote machine, and can't vouch for the exact error). Hylafax mails a report saying An attempt to receive facsimile on ttyS0 failed because: Failure to receive silence..