CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME IF I EVER CAN CONNECT TO INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been reading hundreds of "help" pages searching the friggin net, and all bloody list of linmodems and every other crap I've come across and I still do not know if there is a friggin way of using my crappy modem that was built-in the stupid thing when I bought the 'puter 8 mths ago. :smash:

Can someone tell me if and where and how I get the routines needed for the stupid thing.

It uses:
Smartlink HAMR5603 and Si3014-KS Chipset in SOIC16 package
It's called:
Creatix HCNR56k (CTX 601 v.1)
Rev v.1
CE 0682X

There is no FCC number on-board, but P/N: KM116000200 and 1V-094V-0 0106 is printed on the damn thing.
If I knew how to attach things here I could show the manual in PDF, send me your e-mail address and I'll post it to you. JUST GET MY MODEM WORKING IN LINUX!!!!!!!

Well, uh...unless you've come across anything for that Si3014-KS chipset on linmodems.org I can pretty much tell you you're better off going over to your nearest electronics store and buying a REAL modem. I have a lucent chipset winmodem and even though there is a driver available for it it isn't very easy to get working right...

OK. I can tell you that even if there is a HOW-TO or a driver or whatever for your WinModem (which is what most PCI, and probably all CNR and AMR modems are, regardless of whether they are on-board or use that strange slot), you will still have problems with it. The whole point in WinModems is that you can only use them under Windows. If there is an option in your BIOS to disable the onboard modem, then do so, and buy a SERIAL modem. Normally the advice would be to but an external modem, but with the advent of USB modems, which are frequently also WinModems, the advice should now be: buy a serial one! They cannot fail to be hardware modems!

(I know how frustrating it is - I had a USB WinModem once. Honestly, once you get a proper hardware modem, it is a piece of piss connecting to the internet under Linux).

I've pretty much all but given up on the winmodem thing too... too much damn work and I still can't get the retartded thing to connect right...I'm buying a hardware modem as soon as I can afford it. I can't believe that a company would make such a piece of crap and sell it as a modem, no matter how good they work in windows, they should have a label saying that they're a hardware/software modem that can only be used in windows. On the box of the modem I bought it said Internal 56.6k PCI Modem. That brings to mind another rip off I was handed... I bought a PC on sale a few years back and on the box it said:

processor: Cyrix MII 6x86-366mhz

Well, turns out that when I boot it up, run some diagnosics it turns out the chip only clocks at 250mhz... I try to overclock, the chipset disables overclocking, and the CPU won't boot. SO, I was pretty much screwed over by the lovely folks at Compaq... (sorry, not related, but what the hell, right??)

the winmodem battle is a fierce one... linux users don't tend to walk away unscathed.

it is getting better tho - but the easiest way, by far, is still just to go and get a nice cheap $30-40 real modem.

With regard to the Compaq/Cyrix thing:

Don't they run as strange FSBs? My sister's computer runs at something like 85MHz FSB and won't take any RAM that I throw at it. It chugs along with it's 32Mb of 85MHz RAM, but it refuses to take any of the 100 or 133MHz sticks I've tried.

On the WinModem thing:

I certainly got very pissed off. The USB modem I bought was just as expensive, if not more expensive, than some of the serial ones they had, and yet it's not even got half the chips in it! I was quite lucky that my Mum had a serial/hardware modem that I could simply swap - she doesn't use Linux (as she wouldn't) so she didn't mind.

It's not that bad. Some time ago I was helping someone with a winmodem. After some digging I realized there is no driver and it won't be in the near future. Next week I was helping another person with the same type of modem. I was bored so I started searching again. There was a driver!

Actually you can make use of winmodems on your system, they can be just regular phones accepting calls, it is just software that has to be written, that's all.
And get that damn real hardware modem.

I bought a US Robotics modem which installed on the first try.
It was the only one that I found that stated that it was supported.

Good luck

They are known to run strange FSB speeds, but mine runs at a lovely 100mhz... but the only problem I have had is the overclock, since I figured the thing was rated @ 366mhz I tried to change the jumper to the setting for 366... She booted up and ran through the boot process, even stating a higher clock speed, but as soon as windoze started to load I got a GPF even before the lovely win98 boot screen showed up. So, I figure, I'll knock it down a setting to 333... nothing, the system didn't even boot, so I changed back to the default settings and it worked again... I think it's an internal block against overclock, but when I installed a generic brand 133mhz 128mb memory upgrade I had no problem with FSB, except that I had extremely slow performance until I placed the 133mhz stick ahead of the 100mhz stick (I doubt that having those 2 different clock speed chips in there is any good, but I assume they can only run as fast as the bus anyway...which is 100mhz.) Oh, and compaq emailed me on the subject many months ago and they said "The Cyrix 366 chip installed in your Presario 5304 is a model name of the chip. The chip is set at 250mhz, but can handle the same amount of commands that a 366mhz chip can." Really, it just shows that the hardware people are just out there to get some $$.

Yeah, you could set up a Windows based firewall.