Are there any external USB dialup h/w modems?
 

Hi, first-time post here, but I've been a lurker for a while...
I asked the following question over on Ubuntu Forums, but
they're absolutely deluged with network-related problems
right now - so I got no responses at all. Anyway...

Does anyone know of any external USB dialup hardware modem
that Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) (or indeed *any* recent Linux distro)
will even recognize??

I've spent quite a lot of time trawling previous posts about the
nightmare of USB dialup modems on Linux, and looked at quite a
few other Linux related sites. (I have 20 years experience as
a Unix programmer, though not much on Linux.)

I recently decided to splurge on a new machine, choosing all the
components myself. I chose a Gigabyte GA-965G-DS4 motherboard,
with many USB ports (but no RS-232 serial). Silly me. I just
assumed that USB would be fine for everything these days and
didn't bother checking, although I spent much time researching
most of my other component choices.

I got a Netcomm AM5055 Roadster V.92 USB modem, thinking that
it would be a full hardware external modem. This model takes
its power from the USB bus, and was recognized ok under Vista
after I installed the Windows drivers supplied by Netcomm. Then I
got rid of Vista and installed Feisty. A curious thing happened:
the "power" LED on the modem came on for a few secs, then went
off, and continued slowing cycling on-off in this way. However,
this didn't happen under Vista, and also *doesn't* happen when I
plug the modem into another much older Gateway GP6 PC running
Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy). But even on Edgy, I can't get the Netcomm
modem to respond to "AT" commands, so I'm guessing it's really a
softmodem inside an external case, and needs a Linux driver
(which Netcomm doesn't support).

In contrast, the old computer running Edgy happily talks to a
Dynalink 56K E-modem II (external serial H/W modem). I was able
configure PPP in Edgy without too much trouble.

QUESTION: Over on linux-usg.org, there's a page on USB modems
which talks about how a "USB Modem (CDC ACM) support" kernel
option is necessary. How do I find out whether this is in Feisty's
kernel? (Linux 2.6.17-10-generic #2 SMP Fri Oct 13 18:45:35 UTC
2006 i686 GNU/Linux.) I've tried "lsmod" but the output contained
nothing involving either of the phrases "cdc" or "acm".

Anyway... ADSL/Broadband is not an acceptable option for me,
so I need to figure out what to do to get dialup working on my
new machine running Feisty. My options appear to be:

1) Buy a different external USB dialup modem (certified for use
in Australia) which is indeed an external hardware modem,
requiring no driver. QUESTION: do any even exist? (I searched in
many places, but failed to find one.)

2) Buy a simple PCI serial card which can plug into the Gigabyte
motherboard's PCI slot, and then use my Dynalink modem (or
some other serial H/W modem). QUESTION: Is this a sensible idea?
If so, can anyone recommend a suitable card/manufacturer? I'm not
too fussed about price, as I want ease, reliability, and quality.

3) Are there other (non-ADSL/BB) options that I don't know about?

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions/comments.

- strangerep

A true hardware modem i.e. RS-232 would be the most compatable since no special drivers are required for the device but you would need to install a PCI serial card. Another alternative would be to get a USB - serial port adapter. I use the ones from Radio Shack which work very nicely with linux.

As you have guessed a USB modem is still a soft modem since any USB device still requires some type of module. I know that Creative USB MODEMs but not sure Australia, are compatable with the adc acm modules. BTW did you try installing the adc acm modules via the modprobe command? A quick google did not turn up anything positive if your MODEM has any linux support.

Thanks for your reply! I was starting to think I was totally on
my own with this problem. I have indeed ordered a PCI card
(Sunix 4079T) which the manufacturer claims is compatible
with Linux. It hasn't arrived yet though.

I don't actually know how to do that. I presumed it would require
downloading large amounts of Linux source code - which is a
pain for me on a slow dialup link. If that's incorrect, then
do you know of any specific links which explain how to do this
sort of thing (i.e: without becoming a full-on kernel developer)?