You have mastered the intricacies of the X Window System, your sound card is finally working, Linux is installed successfully, and everything seems fine — everything except that one final, nagging question: How do you get that darned modem to work?
You have mastered the intricacies of the X Window System, your sound card is finally working, Linux is installed successfully, and everything seems fine — everything except that one final, nagging question: How do you get that darned modem to work?
Judging from the mail I’ve received on the subject, getting your modem up and running is one of the last great hurdles between Linux misery and Linux happiness, so this month we’re going to cover the basics of modem configuration.
I don’t have space to cover all types of modems here, so I’m going to focus on connecting with telephone modems. If you have ISDN, you should find documentation in your distribution (/usr/src/linux/Documentation/isdn). In any case, there is a lot more documentation on the Web.
As usual, start with the Web site for your particular distribution. At http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank,there is some good information on ISPN configuration, as well as several pointers to more information on DSL, ADSL, and cable modems.
Ports and Modems
A computer has a number of connections between the inside of the box and the outside world. Many are specific in nature; the keyboard connector will talk only to your keyboard and to absolutely nothing else, not even to your mouse.
General-purpose connections to the outside world are called “ports.” Most PCs come with two serial ports and one parallel port. Serial ports transmit data over one wire in a serial fashion, one bit at a time, and then…
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