i can only get dialup so could anyone suggest a dialup friendly linux distro? tx

Any Linux OS can be as dial-up friendly as any other, provided the necessary software and drivers are installed or included. Such software would be pppd, the PPP daemon, and for example wvdial, a command-line dialer, and/or maybe if the Linux was running a KDE desktop, you might like to use KPPP as a GUI dialer.

Ubuntu or Puppy or Mint might be good Linuxes to try out, if this will be your first Linux OS, but other members will surely suggest some other ones too; it's a matter of preference really.

The real important question will be: What sort of modem do you have? Can you tell us what is the make & model of the modem? As much detail as possible will help, such as, is it a PCI modem, or a USB device? Can you point us to a website that shows us the modem and its specifications?

Best regards, and welcome to LQ

Sasha

i have a USR Robotics usb modem.Have puppy and it's wonderful and works on all 4 of my old computers.Had no luck with ubuntu after weeks of trying.

One thing that you want to avoid is anything that will require too much updating; all mainstream distros these days assume that you can pull down large quantities of 'stuff' to update and fix issues, and with a dialup connection, that is going to be a pain.

(If you have access to another computer with decent net bandwidth, you can often work around this problem by downloading stuff separately and copying it to your own local repository via, eg, a USB drive, but it is still a pain).

In context, the small distros like puppy, dsl, etc, sound like good choices.