PCI Dial up Modem Recommendations

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Mon, 7/14/08, shannon miller <swmiller6 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Christofer C. Bell <christofer.c.bell at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
> > On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 6:38 PM, shannon miller
> > <swmiller6 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I was wondering if you guys could recommend 
> > > a PCI dial up modem.  I have a computer that 
> > > is going to someone who is hundreds of miles 
> > > away and want something that will not break
> > > with kernel updates. The user is exactly that 
> > > a user and will not be able to fix it if it 
> > > breaks, and it will be his only way to
> > > connect to the Internet so I need something 
> > > that will just work. 
> >          
> > If you need something that will "just work no 
> > matter what" then you want an external modem.  
> > Something like this would work just fine:
> > 
> > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16825104135

> Thanks for the input. Looks like external is gonna 
> be the way to go, I found some a US Robotics on 
> craigs list for $15.00.

Watch it there, you need to make sure the US Robotics modem is a RS232 serial port modem for maximum "will just work" potential.  Some of the USB models, even from US Robotics, are still technically "external" modems, but for some reason aren't supported all that well in Linux.  I have one such US Robotics USB external modem which doesn't seem to work at all in Linux, and I also found it for $15.00 on clearance.

You could still go with a PCI modem and achieve "will just work", if you make sure that the modem uses a "hardware DSP" (digital signal processor).  So-called "soft" modems (winmodems) use a software DSP which has uncertain Linux support and may require tinkering (i.e., may not "just work").

Depending on the quality of the telephone lines in his location "hundreds of miles away", he may not be able to achieve much higher than 33.6K or even 28.8K, even with a 56K modem.  Older external serial-port modems which run at 33.6K or even 28.8K will be very cheap (by now) and "will just work".  While you may still want to grab him a brand new 56K serial-port external modem, getting him a backup 33.6K external serial-port modem would be just the ticket for making sure he has a backup plan should his 56K modem fail.