nice....but

Story: Setting up a linux dialup connectionTotal Replies: 4
Author Content
nikkels

Jan 23, 2008
6:22 AM EDT
This was a good post. It reminds me to remember never to advice any Buntu for new to linux users who have dial up. In PCLinuxOS and Mandriva, you do it in a GUI, which is as easy than any GUI in windows.
Steven_Rosenber

Jan 23, 2008
3:03 PM EDT
I think we all need to remember that large parts of the U.S. (and probably the rest of the world, too) don't have broadband, and there are even people who can get it but choose not to. Therefore, getting dialup modems to work should be a bigger deal than it is.
number6x

Jan 24, 2008
5:15 AM EDT
before I got broadband, this was always an issue when I would try Ubuntu. I would have to try a few things to get the modem working. I always thought this was strange because debian 3.0 would set my modem up during install and offer to download packages ( I never let it because it was dial up after all).

There are usually a few distros that can't handle modems well, even standard external modems connected to a port and not winmodems. For a network centered micro-distro that is forgivable, but for a distro targeting the masses it is a major design flaw.
Steven_Rosenber

Jan 24, 2008
8:39 AM EDT
The fallback for a working telephone modem is to get an external modem that connects via serial port. They've still got 'em.
number6x

Jan 24, 2008
9:12 AM EDT
Steve,

I have an external modem connected to a serial port. Older versions of Ubuntu always had trouble with it.

I also have an internal, pci, real modem in a box around here somewhere. Some distros worked with it others would have apic problems. I understand that.

but older versions of Ubuntu were a bear with external modems. My usual solution was to download wvdial and use that. I just found it amazing that debian would recognize and set up the modem during install, and Ubuntu 4.x and 5.x would have to be updated to get the modem working. It was very strange for a user friendly distro to fail where the 'unfriendly' debian just asked for a user name pasword and phone number during set up. Especially because Ubuntu is based on debian!

You are correct that real modems are nice to have around.

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