Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Dumb question but what advantages would I have if I use a hardware based modem instead of a winmodem?

If I have to use my last ISA slot and use a PCI slot, what would I be missing?

My PCI winmodem is completely compatible with Symantec Talkworks Pro 3.0.

What do you do with a hardware based modem in Linux???

Is this question from 1997??

Are you using dialup?

By my understanding a winmodem is only good for connecting to the internet via dialup, but not to a LAN. (can you even get dialup these days?)

A "real" modem will provide networking capabilities on your local network as well as connection to the world wide web.

A Winmodem is a software-defined modem. As far as I know, the software that defines it as a modem is only available for Windows. Basically a Winmodem is a fairly powerful audio amplifier with the transformers and other hardware that allow it to connect to the Internet. The first computer I owned had one. It worked fine as a modem and even better as the audio amplifier for the speakers. Unfortunately there was no way to make it work in Linux, so I had to get a hardware modem, which did work in Linux.

What flash posted is why winmodems are no good for Linux.

For Linux and Puppy Linux you want to be using a hardware modem.

That was one of the biggest issues in the early days of Puppy Linux when people still had winmodems.
No way to run the winmodem.

The software needed was not available for Linux only Windows OS.

Being software they used a lot of CPU cycles to do what they did.

But when prices for computers were very high. It was a low cost way to have working modem.

What do you use the modem for?

I apologize. I was very confused.

I was under the mistaken impression that using a hardware based modem gives you some sort of rare special capability in Linux.

It sounds completely stupid I know.

I’m building a computer here. I’m deciding what the final components on it will be.

Anything that is hardware based is going to be best for Linux.

So get a hardware only modem.

All the other stuff in a computer is hardware that will be well supported by the Linux kernel and firmware.
If it is very new hardware.
The Linux operating system will need to be using a series 6 kernel and it's firmware package.

There were some linux soft modem drivers back in the day. BarryK included all he could find in one Puppy. He was sympathetic to dialup users cause he was one for lot longer than most. Lot distributions never did support dialup much. Cause real people using linux were suppose to have ethernet. But thats long time ago. The problem was that the drivers became obsolete as linux kernels changed. Nobody put the effort into modernizing them. Whereas you can still use a hardware modem, might have to install wvdial, ppp, etc. I think lot distributions have really pruned on such.

Last I knew there were still around a million dialup accounts in USA. Yea a shocker, but there are still rural areas where dialup is the only option other than maybe satellite. Quite a unique problem for those trying to use dialup with win10/11 and the continual updates as they didnt exclude mandatory updates from dialup connections. LOL

As to usefulness of dialup, I can see it useful if you are using a pop3 email and impose size limits and limits on attachments. Beyond that, not very useful. Most websites are too junked up with eye candy and data collection on your dime. Last I had dialup over ten years ago, it had gotten where it could take half hour trying to load a single webpage and then usually time out before it actually did load. Now it makes a difference on speed of your dialup. You will have lot better experience with close to a 56k connection, but mine was more like 19k in real world. Big difference. And worse, the price of a dialup isp has skyrocketed cause well there are few of them left, plus you need a landline. So by time you pay $20 for isp service and $25 for a landline. Just go buy hotspot gizmo and data for it or cell plan if the company isnt anal about tethering. Or satellite if no good cell reception.