Is there a certain year in which if the modem was made before then it would probably work in Linux?

Hi aaa

Its just a guess but I thought Winmodems started out around 1997-1998.

As a general point I think most External serial modems will work with Linux.

Winmodems were invented probably about the same time that motherboards starting including cheap integrated sound and graphics to 'simplify' things for the masses of people who were buying so called PC's and had no clue what they were doing or what they were buying.

(dang, that's some long convoluted sentence, eh?)

I would guess that softmodems were invented at around the same time as processors became fast enough to cope with the task of de/modulating the signals - possibly around the time of the early Pentiums, or even the later 486s.

Skyline, I have yet to find a serial modem that won't work - I believe the serial port is too slow to send/receive unmodulated data, so it has to do the work itself and send only sensible data. I could be wrong, in which case, please correct me!

Thymox
Duhh! What's this for?? - I wasn't trying to make a statement about how Hardware modems work or illuminate the differences between Hardware and Software modems.

I simply made a polite and general point about External serial modems.

I said:

"" As a general point I think most External serial modems will work with Linux. ""

Perhaps to please Thymox I should have said:

""As a general point all External serial modems will work with Linux""

Uh.. I thought he was just verifying your point.

Maybe?

Skyline, there was absolutely no need for that! Please tell me exactly which part of my post you found offensive or rude? Reading through it all I can find is a clarification of what the state of affairs is with regard to serial modems, or more accurately, the serial port. I appreciate that you may understand all the intricate ins and outs of serial programming, and modem technologies, but forgive me if I thought that this site was aimed at helping newbies.

As a matter of fact, in theory at least, you could get serial-port software modems, but they would have to be remarkably slow by todays standards, so I do appologise - your original polite and general point stands.

Thymox

I was under the impresison that this was a light and general thread - nothing too important - so I just made a quick, general low key comment.

Was it appropriate to come back with a mini diatribe about Hardware modems?

If you look at everyones posts here - the tone is light and fluffy - mine was certainly a quick, light comment - was it appropriate in this context to make a technical point about hardware modems?

I think its highly likely that aaa him/herself could have read up on Hardware and Software modems and answered his/her own question.

To me atleast aaa's question was general and light in tone - so I responded accordingly.

I say it again - to my light and general response - was it neccesary to add a technical clarification?

Thanks for the info.