[aklug] Re: Linux and dial-up modems

From: Ryan <carbonfreeze@gmail.com>
Date: Sat Jun 14 2008 - 20:15:49 AKDT

Before I had DSL, I used a US Robotics serial modem, worked great. Just
about any serial modem will work. HCF/HSF modems can work with the
linuxant driver, although its $$$ to get above 14.4 speed. Some laptop
modems may require additional firmware or kernel modules.

Out of the box (no downloads required) distro support varies, and its
easy to run into conflicts with Networkmanager, which is used on
recent fedora/suse/debian. If using Networkmanager, it is usually
necessary to set it "offline" then activate the connection with
whatever method you prefer (wvdial/some gui), as Networkmanager will
not allow the dialup program to modify /etc/hosts and some other
ifup/down weirdness. Networkmanager 0.7 is *supposed* to have better
dialup/pppoe support, but from my testing its still junk.
Networkmanager 0.6 will occasionally activate a modem, but it wont tell
you if it fails.

For GUI based tools, gnome-ppp and kppp are adequate. Debian/Ubuntu does
not come with a dialup GUI tool out of the box (IIRC), so you will need
to configure wvdial manually or use pppconfig, and then activate the
connection with "plon connection-name" or somesuch.

A search query for "linux modem" will net you some good resources, or
check out linuxquestions.org.
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Received on Sat Jun 14 20:16:07 2008

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sat Jun 14 2008 - 20:16:07 AKDT