I'm not going to lie to you nice folks: I am an utter amature when it comes to using linux. My (current) problem is that I can't get my modem to work. I have download the drivers, unpaked but can not get them to run properly. Below is information on both my distro and my modem.

Modem info:
Make: Pragmatic (Lectron) PCI micromodem
Chipset: PC-Tel 1789
Distro:
Mandrake Linux 9.1

Any help you can offer me would be apreciated.
Thank you.

If there where any instructions in the package with the drivers, show us the error output from what you tried following those instructions.

I hope this doesn't seem off-topic... Isn't the PCTel a Winmodem, that is, a software modem? I had one in my Windows days. It was awful. The best computer money I ever spent was the few dollars it took to buy a totally hardware modem to replace it. No more computer hangups, slowdowns, failure to retrieve files, etc.

Sorry not to be answering the question, but from my own painful experience I just wanted to suggest moving to a hardware solution--if yours isn't.

Jonr is completely right, the Pc-Tel 1789 architecture is a Win modem. However I have found a driver for my modem. The driver is called pctel-0.9.6.tar.gz, I found it on this site http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pctel-linux/. My new problem is getting it to install. I unpaked, went into the new directory and used the command:
./configure --with-kernal-includes=/usr/src/linux/include --with-hal=pct789
It then ran for a few seconds then gave me the error modversions.h is missing - you should configure your kernel first! (The exclamation point is from the program not me).
Once again I am a complete newbie in the whole linux field. Any assistance with this problem (even if it is just pointing me to a thread which has delt with this problem before) would be greatly apreciated.
Thank you.

Well, it's in the FAQ:

8. Compile error: no modversions.h
----------------------------------
If you see something like:
configure: error: modversions.h is missing - you should configure
your kernel first!

then, you either have:
a) not installed your kernel sources --> install them

b) your kernel sources at a different path --> specify the path with:
./configure --with-kernel-includes=DIR

c) no "modversions.h" in your kernel sources -->
create the modversions.h by running
$ cd [...] (where you have your kernel sources, default is
/usr/src/linux)
$ make dep

this should make you a modversions.h in [...]/linux/include/

If this did not work, an ugly hack is to create an empty file there:
$ mkdir -p [...]/linux/include/linux
$ touch [...]/linux/include/linux/modversions.h


Hope that get's you goin.

first off, if you hvaen't already found this somehwere here's what you need to type to (according to the instrucitons)
tar zxvf /path to file
#it will create a new file (pctel-0.9.6) in the same directory as the tarball file go to it
cd /that file
./configure --with-hal=your chipset --with-kernel-includes=wherever ur kernel includes are (see modversion.h proble abouve)
make
make install
insmod pctel
insmod ptserial

if all tha tworks /w no errors your good to go

I just finished working on getting my pctel to work (using pctel-0.9.6.tat.gz.) I had mandrake for a while i was able to get to make and then ran into some errors. I switched to redhat and it work out alright. Good luck

I found the modversions.h files (there is one in /usr/include/ and one in usr/include/linux) however when I point the ./configure file to either of these directories it still say that modversion.h is neither usable or present. Is it possible that when I installed Mandrake that it did not install the kernel sources? And if this is the case how would I go about installing them?
Thank you for your patience.

from what i've gathered reading stuff on the internet i think its possible that the kernel sources aren't inlcuded (although i doubt that's the problem) I also ran into what ur saying. try pointing it to /usr/src. if that doesn't work try the ugly back way talked about up there somewhere, i think thats what finally worked for me