I've found plenty of information about configuring linux for ppp dialin, to set up a computer as a kind of mini-isp, but my question is slightly different. Right now I've got a dumb terminal connected to my serial port. The line in my inittab is
S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttyS0 vt102
There is also a commented out line:
# mo:235:respawn:/usr/sbin/mgetty -s 38400 modem

If I just wanted to be able to dial in with some device and get a command line, how much would I really have to do? Could I do something as simple as connect and externel modem to my serial port where I have the dumb terminal right now? Would I use the commented out mgetty line, or would the agetty line work? What about for an internal modem?

My interest was kind of sparked by this
file, although I don't know that I'd want to do that perse. Maybe something similar though.

EDIT: OOH OOH! A TRS-80 Model 100 would be sweet for this. Internal 300 baud modem!

Hello Gantrep,
All you should need to bring up a prompt in a dumb terminal is a correct getty entry in /etc/inittab (yours appears good), correct/compatable settings on the terminal, and a null modem cable.
What brand of terminal is it? I was able to get some VTs working VIA Debian.

Edit: Re-reading your post I see my reply is fairly useless. You want to find some docs on modem interface. There may be a howto at linux docs.
Good Luck.

Right, I've already got the dumb terminal working fine, but since you asked, and since I think it is extremely cool, I'm using a compaq portable III running an old version of Procomm Plus. 286 with 640K of RAM, and the display is orange plasma--immune to burn-in. Great for just sitting there and running top. Cool pics of one of them here

I guess what I need to do then is just read up more on modems in general?

Depending on how much you already have under your belt, at least as far as configuring and using them to do what you want with your calculator.
The terminal looks great! I am jealous. How useful is the 5 inch floppy?
Just running 'top'? You aren't running 'pine', 'links', 'ftp', etc.?
Don't tell me you have never read LinuxQuestions and posted VIA links from your terminal.

The floppy drive? Well, I don't have a lot of use for it since I don't have any software on 5.25" floppies besides a copy of DOS (somewhere). Boots from hard disk do I don't have a need for it. Now, there is this Tandy, an 8086, in the back room of the library at my high school that boots DOS out of ROM. There is a box full of software on floppies for it also. I want it pretty bad, but the librarian still uses it to make really ugly banners(you know, the long hole-fed, dot matrix style banners). I am considering trying to put together maybe a newer system to do the same thing and asking her to trade me for it.(she is not a computer enthusiast or anything)

Well, I haven't been at linuxquestions that long, but I have used it to browse and post at linuxnewbie.org before it switched to justlinux.com. But most of the time, just top. It sets on the same desk as my main pc, and i like the convenience of being able to glance over and see whats going on rather than running top in a borderless window and the desktop and alt-tabbing around.

However, if I could get some info about setting up a dial-in terminal that would be greatly appreciated!