I just installed Fedora core 4 to see if Linux is something for me. So far everything looks fine, but I'm not able to get online.
On my system I have an external Dynalink TAS400e ISDN modem connected to COM1.

I'm not able to find any driver for this modem...

Is there a way to make this modem work? One way (Google) might be setting the modem up as a generic analog external modem (as long as it's an external modem, the modem could be managed as an analog modem), but already here I'm reaching the limit of my knowledge to Linux and to modems...

Has anyone managed to get such a modem to work? Is there a guide explaining how to do this?

Bugsy67

External ISDN modem?

When I had ISDN the "external modem" I used had the networking setup within it. I only had to plug a standard network cable from its RJ45 out to the RJ45 in of the network card on my PC. I then configured the PC to be a DHCP client and the "modem" provided the IP address.

In other words there was no modem configuration step on the PC itself. It was all done in the modem. The setup on the PC was no different than if I had it in the office or on a cable "modem".

The ISDN "modem" had "circuit IDs" that looked suspiciously like phone numbers. As I recall the setup on the "modem" had to be the same as that at my company's had and I also recall this being a bitch to get going initially. This was mostly between the phone company and the network guys at my office.

All of that is different from serial (real) modems as for those you do have to configure setup on the box to do ppp. (Of course the modem itself has configuration as well which varies by manucfacturers.

P.S. Back then I was told ISDN stood for "It Still Does Nothing".

Thanks jlightner for your reply. It seems we have (had) different 'modems'. I would wery much like to have a cable (ADSL) modem, but the phone company have no free lines available in their phone central, so I'm stuck with the old "It Still Does Nothing" for now. ;-)

Still I would like my 'crappy' configuration to work.

I tried probing for the modem, but Fedora finds nothing... I would expect such a distro to find most of my hardware, and not having to enter cryptical terminal commands. Some years ago I tried SuSe ?.?, and managed (don't ask me how...) to get online.

I have a Debian 3.1 distro as well, perhaps I should give it a try... I'm intrigued by Linux and open source, and I would very much like Linux to be my primary OS. I'm quite happy with XP, but would like to give Microsoft a run for their money...

All help is still appreciated....


Bugsy67