Sridhar wrote: > Something offtopic, but one question, what is a hardware > modem and what is a software modem?
More experienced Linux users will have better answers, but let me try to answer. Older modems connected to i286, i386, i486, etc., and older machines, via an RS-232 serial interface. These modems did all of the work necessary to modulate and demodulate date over the plain old analog telephone line. These modems were external devices in their own small box and were usually powered by small AC transformer power supplies. Later, modems became cards that plugged into ISA slots. They derived their power from the motherboard's bus, and for economy, began performing less of their own work. They relyied on the motherboard's CPU to do some of the work that the external, hardware modems did for themselves. At the same time, Microsoft and the manufacturers of these internal, bus card modems, reached agreement whereby the source code for the drivers for these modems would be proprietary and not open. >From the standpoint of the so-called hardware modem doing its own work without burdening the system's CPU, and especially from the standpoint of open-source code being unavailable to Linux programmers, the hardware modem is considered by Linux to be the only "true modem." The card modems are generally referred to as "Winmodems," or devices that plug into an ISA slot and have proprietary non-open-source driver code. Some excellent Linux-centric websites discuss this issue at length as well as list modems by their Linux compatibility. I am sorry I don't have the link. Someone in this group will send it, I am sure. Otherwise, do a Google search with search terms something like "modem linux." Look for a site that is listed as stating something like why Winmodems are not modems :-) Best regards, John E. Jay Maass, K7JKZ suburban Philadelphia [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://jaywire.members.tripod.com using Steven Darnold's BasicLinux Ver. 1.61 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
