I'm curious to see if I the built-in modem on my Gateway Solo Pro 9300 will work. It's a 3Com mini PCI type 3B. I did a bit of research on it, and I see that Linux does know about it, so that's encouraging. Its pid.ids file is 10b7:1006, and indeed I'm seeing it in /proc/bus/pci/devices. Its entry is:

0060 10b71006 9 f6018008 f6000008 f6010008

... and then zeros, zeros, zeros.

Obviously if I knew what I was talking about, I'd just give the relevant info!!

So, is this a valid modem under Linux, or only a winmodem?
How do I get the system to see it?

I'm using Debian unstable (Knoppix HD install) with a recompiled 2.4.22 kernel. Thanks!!

Here's the output of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1978 Maestro 2E (rev 10)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:0a.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:0c.0 Communication controller: 3Com Corporation MINI PCI type 3B Data Fax Modem
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x (rev 64)

See www.linmodems.org for winmodem help.

Or get broadband. You can never go wrong with that. As for getting the modem to work, better wait for someone else because I've never had to use a modem in Linux. Just an ethernet card which worked great, and then a Wireless card which just needed the Madwifi drivers.

Looks like support for this winmodem ain't happening, yet.

I'm in Italy - broadband is ridiculously expensive here. Plus with a laptop, it's always good to have a modem. Luckily I have a PCMCIA modem card, so I'll stick to it for now. Thanks all.