I just installed mandrake 10. I cant connect to the internet because it does not seem to reconize my modem. How do i install my modem? I have a Hsp56 Micromodem. Ive tryed to mount it and it says that it is write protected and that no medium was found. I also have a problem playing dvd's It detects my drive but it says that it cant read a nav file or something like that how do i fix that problem i have a LITEON 8X DVDR/RW drive the interface is ATAPI/E-IDE.

This is almost certainly a 'software assisted', or win-modem. Have a look at www.linmodems.org, and then search for the appropriate driver. There is also a scanmodem tool there, that works quite well.

I did a quick hunt, and came across some source code at http://www.zoltrix.com/PUBLIC2/MODEM...sp56-linux.zip, but there may be others. I would just download and compile it, and take it from there. (You will probably also need to download/install the kernel headers or complete kernel source, if you haven't already).

The ideal solution is to beg/borrow/buy a true hardware modem, but these can of course be a bit pricey compared to the winmodems. Writing a quick email to the manufacturer is also recommended, as if enough folk do this then eventually they will realise that not everyone wants to run the usual random, badly written, closed source operating system...

Regarding your cdrom - are you able to mount it as root ? If so, then it's probably just a permissions problem (check whether you have added enough groups to your username).

Good luck !