[SOLVED] Configure dial up ugh

[stealth]

I have a friend who only has access to dial up. I don't have a land line. I am trying to get as much configured before moving the computer to a location where there is a landline and might not be any other internet connection available. The service he uses has software for MS windows and Mac but not Linux. I am hoping that the configuration can be done manually without needing software from the company installed. If not this is going to suck because I will have to reinstall MS windows for him.

I have never setup a Linux computer that needs a dial up connection.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks for all help.

[Just17]

It depends on the modem .....  if VERY lucky it will work in Linux ......  if not then an external modem would be the only option I would consider .....  and even then it must be a 'proper' modem and not one of those Win-modems which the internal type often are.

You might provide some hardware details.

[stealth]

00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)

In PCC under hardware I selected the modem and then run config tool, then I selected analog telephone modem (POTS) and got

Some packages (slmodem) are required but aren't available. Please email texstar at gmail.com about it.

The following component is missing: /usr/sbin/slmodemd

The required files can also be installed from this URL:
http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/resources.html#smartlink

[Linuzoid]

It appears this is a win modem. Good luck trying to get it to work. I never got any to work for me. I use an external modem from Hayes, which is now owned by Zoom Technologies. I've always used Dailup and only external modems that hook to a com port worked for me. I recently tried one of those external modems that is USB, and I couldn't get it to work.

[stealth]

I am going to give it a shot. I went to the URL above and downloaded scanModem and ran it and got some more information. Maybe I will get lucky and get it to work. I will probably have to compile the driver. The diagnostic report from scanModem didn't say the modem was not supported by the software from the URL site above. The computer is mostly in a location where high speed is not available. If it was in a location where high speed was always available I wouldn't have to deal with this. I have been using Linux for 10 years. This is the very first time I have had to configure a Linux computer for dial up. It gets interesting at times converting people and their computers over to Linux.

[Linuzoid]

Yea, I live in a rural area, and I don't have access to high speed Internet either. I get close to 56k, but to upload is only 36k. But those win modems are one big headache. I got my fingers crossed that it works for you. Nothing turns a new comer off like a piece of hardware that works in Windows and not in Linux.

[stealth]

Hardware not working in Linux isn't as big a problem as it was 10 years ago or worse 20 years ago. I remember the trouble 10 years ago. I can only imagine what it was like earlier.

[parnote]

stealth,

Check out my article in the January 2013 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine about fax modems. There is some information in there that should be useful.

parnote

[stealth]

Thanks parnote I will do that.

[stealth]

Welcome to PCLinuxOS! I started with Mandrake/Mandriva for 1 year then switched to Fedora for 3 years then to PCLinuxOS about May 27, 2007 about a week after PCLinuxOS 2007 was released.

The computer that needed to use dial up was a laptop. It is going to be setup with a usb trend fax modem when the owner gets one. I just learned that open SUSE has some really nice tools for getting laptops setup to work with network connections. The owner of the laptop has mentioned that a source he was planning to access for some training was requiring openSUSE so I might end up installing that on his laptop. I have been checking out openSUSE and Debian in VMs in VitrtualBox. I have the opportunity to setup a Linux based POS business to sell/install/service/support POS systems for other businesses and that POS system is based on Debian. The DE for the POS system is the POS itself in place of all the traditional DEs for Linux. I haven't asked or checked it out but I am sure the POS DE is based off one of the DEs normally found on Linux. If I had to guess I would say it is probably gnome. I also know from talking to the owner of the POS company and having worked with a windows based POS that most of the POS systems have copied his system. The one I used to install looked and behaved almost identical to his. He is also the first one to bring touch screen to POS.

I will end up finding myself using PCLinuxOS, openSUSE and Debian. Red Hat also if I get back into web hosting for local businesses.

[bicol_willem]

I see Smartlink.
I remember the times of dial up and a internal modem with a smartlink chip would work like silk in that days.
Maybe you can see the chip on the modem card. If it is Smartlink you should be good to go.
If a other chip ..... (don´t want to think about it) Brrrr...

EDIT

More memories come back:
The Smartlink chip had a number... 786 comes to mind. A other Smartlink modem with a number above 1000 would NOT work. (What a days!)

Connexant modems had a Linux driver which came at a price. The free driver performed very slow.

Then there were USRobotics external modems (real modems, no Winmodems) and they worked well with any Linux but were expensive and (in my case) hard to find if even ....

You see samples here:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=56k%20modem&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A56k%20modem

[stealth]

Linuzoid do you use any special configuration for your dial up? What app do you use? I'm using kppp. Is there anything better? I am getting connection to the modem but it won't connect to any of the dial up numbers.

[stealth]

Re visiting the dial up configure problem. I don't have access all the time to the laptop that needs the dial up configuration. At the same time when I do have access to the computer I don't have access to a land line to do any testing or I don't have access to a high speed connection when I do have access to a land line. So! My problem is I don't have everything I need at one time to solve the problem.

My question now is for anyone who is familiar with setting up a dial up connection on Linux.

As I have said before in this thread I have never had to setup dial up on Linux so I have no past experience I have no first hand knowledge of a properly working configuration with a dial up environment.

The last time I had access to a land line and tried to test the connection I got no where. My first question is this, if I have the modem configured correctly and it attempts to dial out to a known good number, will there be an obvious sound coming from the modem as happens with a windows system? If that answer is yes then I need to figure out what is not configured because as far as I know I have everything configured for the modem. But when attempting to connect it appeared to be trying to dial but made no noise and never connected although another computer at the location running windows had no trouble connecting to the same number and that system clearly made noise when attempting to connect. The windows system was also using the exact same kind of modem that I have connected to the Linux computer. That modem is a Trendnet TFM-561U. That one was featured in an article in the PCLOS Magazine a couple moths ago. I might finally have access to a land line and a high speed connection at the same time if I need to download and install something to finish getting this modem configured and working properly.

I really am glad I have had high speed internet for the last 15 years and have never had to setup my own Linux system with dial up. I hated dial up when I was on windows.

Anyone willing to help me out here?

[stealth]

Apparently I am asking questions that no one thinks are worth answering. I really could use some help with this. I have done all I know to do. Is someone willing to help verify that I have done everything that needs to be done for the modem to work?

Please 

[Just17]

I read through the thread again and honestly am not sure what your present situation is.
Maybe you could re-state it ......  modem hardware, distro & DE, kernel etc ...   and what is installed, particularly outside packages.

I have no similar modem here (I think) but maybe in a box somewhere .....