My operating system is Mandrake 10.1 and it has always detected and worked well with my Zoom external modem so I know that the hardware is Linux friendly. However, I have also installed Fedora Core and cannot get it to detect the modem so I am assuming that a different ppp program is involved. Anyway, I can not make further progress with the dial-out on Fedora. Additionally, I have been "playing" with two of the mini-Linux operating systems, Damn Small Linux and Feather Linux. The "GNU ppp Configuration Device" fails to auto-detect any modems and I can't make any headway with the manual approach. Any help would be appreciated.

com 1 = /dev/ttyS0
com 2 = /dev/ttyS1

The probe is probably looking at /dev/modem which is a symbolic link that points to the proper serial port.

As root, try:

ln -sf /dev/<port modem is connected to> /dev/modem

Then try again.

Alternately, open an X terminal, su - to become root and try:

wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

Now, edit the /etc/wvdial.conf file, removing the semicolons and filling in the correct info in those spaces.

Then as root, the command wvdial should connect you to the internet and control-C will disconnect.

See man wvdialconf

Thanks fancypiper....will do