You've got a winmodem. Not good, but not necessarily fatal. Winmodems
are stripped down units that use the CPU to process the data using a
special software driver. There is a performance hit, but with a modern
CPU (your's certainly fits into that category), and simple surfing, most
people probably don't notice it. They are used because they a lot
cheaper than real modems. Unfortunately, most of the manufacturers of
these modems only provide drivers for windows, not for Linux. (Sometimes
its fear of open software, sometimes its just a question of going where
the big bucks are.) However, some people have had some success getting
these things to work under Linux. An excellent source of information is:
www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html
You may find that someone has a workaround, or even that a Linux driver
is available. I hope so. If not, and you really want to use Linux, you
consider replacing the HSP modem with a real modem -- an external modem
connected to a serial port is considered the best choice by many, but a
lot of us happily use internal ISA bus modems. (Before you lay out any
cash, though, make sure that your motherboard has an unused ISA slot. A
lot of new systems don't.) I don't know anything about PCI bus modems,
but I understand that many, and perhaps all, of them are winmodems.
Again, caveat emptor.
Regards,
Carroll
> jfking wrote:
>
> I recently installed a copy of mandrake linus 7.1 onto my 533 thalon
> K-6 machine,,Compaq..having problems with sound card config..it an ESS
> Allegro PCI....and modem..a PCtel HSP 56 micromodem...I think I found
> the right settings in
> KPP, but when I try it says modem is busy..which it
> isn't....suggestions to fix these two things,,also..tried to use open
> sound from CD, but couldn't get install program to run...did get it on
> my local root in tmp..click on install..no go..if I can do this ,
> might fix sound...
> Thanks
