I installed Kubuntu 8.04 in early summer but I was only able to get my internal modem working just a few days ago. It turns out that I had downloaded the incorrect driver... Once I installed the proper driver (i.e. hcfpcimodem_1.17full_k2.6.24_19_generic_ubuntu_i386.deb.zip), I was finally able to get Kubuntu to recognize the modem and dial out.

I can get my PC to dial out and successfully connect to my ISP... But none of my internet browsers or other applications seems to recognize that a connection has been made.

-When I pick up the phone's receiver, I can hear the modem so I know a connection has been made.
-When I chose to disconnect, the modem hangs up properly and I can hear the dial tone when I pick up the phone.
-When I check to see the data in/out activity, the stats say only a few hundred bytes have been exchanged.

I'm obviously missing something very basic, but I'll be darned if I can guess what it is.

Can anyone help?

Thank you!

Having the modem busy doesn't necessarily mean that you have made a connection to the internet. Try pinging a website to see if you do indeed have a connection.

In a terminal, enter: ping linuxquestions.org

If you get a return showing the time required, you do have a connection to the internet. If you don't get a connection, you don't have a connection.

If might also help if you tell us which application(s) you use to dial out, and perhaps show us some config files (because we aren't all using Kubuntu and may not know what Kubunu provides).

You might try "ifconfig" at the cli to see if it shows the modem status as "Up"

While intended for chardware controlelr absed modems rather than "winmodems" the following might prove helpful and is rather generic to distribution.

http://www.milner.ca/article/analog-modems-for-linuxbsd

I, too, use a dial up internal modem. I gave up on the winmodem because (1)software modems just don't give you the performance of a hardware modem and (2)unless you pay for the "real drivers" what you get is a software modem that will deliver a 14.4 KbS connection. I recommend a usr5610c modem.

That said; did you try configuring using the terminal as in "sudo pppconfig" ? I found that, in Ubuntu 8.04.1, I need to do it there first and then again in the gui box from the network applet.

If you cursor over the applet it still tells me that there is "No network connection". It is wrong. I can click on the applet and have the options of connecting or disconnecting and it works fine.

I would try, now that you now which ttys or ttyS (mine is ttyS0) your modem is at, clearing your gui box of all information and running pppconfig and going back to the gui box and refilling it. Set your modem options (preferences/modem) with the volume at loud so you can here it dialing. If this bugs you you can go back and change that when everything is working.

Mine dials on boot and is connected before I can get through the log on screen.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the pppconfig! Went straight to Notes.
When you have a serial connection working, Does it show up in ifconfig? If so what is the name of the device? (As eth0 l0 etc)?
How do you see the IP address it is pulling?
Can you ping internet sites as you can through an ethernet connection?
Does the Modem traffic show up in iptraf?
Thanks for any knowledge you can share!

tom@hogwash:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1d:09:2d:0a:49
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Memory:febe0000-fec00000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:3984 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3984 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:200904 (196.1 KB) TX bytes:200904 (196.1 KB)

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:72.36.19.20 P-t-P:72.36.10.227 Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7882 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:9149 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:6298533 (6.0 MB) TX bytes:1589128 (1.5 MB)

This iptraf thing is interesting. I do not have it. It is downloading,
installing as I type.

Wow. That is nice. I will have to fool with that. Yes it certainly does show up on iptraf.

I really don't know about this program at all and have only looked at it for a few seconds but it certainly works with the ppp0 connection.

As for pinging a site, I have done that years ago under Win98. I used Norton utilities to watch the real time speed some too. With Ubuntu I just use the system monitor and use the browser to connect. With dial up I just don't really see the point of bouncing stuff back and forth to no end when I could be getting something I want or need.

It could well be that this is a personality flaw or that I am just missing the point.

Thanks so much for taking the time
I see from your post that PPP0 is the device name I was looking for.
That would imply that ifup ppp0 should work as well ifup eth0
Thanks again for the help
Apologies to OP for hi-jacking the thread, but hopefully it will provide helpful info for the OP

I really think the best way to configure is pppconfig.