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Oops. ISP's don't support modems - either the modem works and you'll connect, or it won't and you can't. ISP's only support the protocol over the phone line. True some of the big name ones used to make things difficult by requiring customised chatscripts but that's not the issue.Sorry Neil, as I said I *work* for an ISP in Tech Support (actually 4 ISPs hosted on our network) and we *do* support modems, inasmuch as we will do our level best to help the customers with a recalcitrant modem issue. Admittedly other ISPs may say "Get lost", indeed if the customer tells us they had it plugged in during a thunderstorm and now the modem doesn't respond, we would likely RTV (return to vendor) the issue, but I can only speak from experience. The broad remit for us is to help the customer get online asap and (regardless of my personal feelings as to whether it is our job or not) that includes modem support. What we won't do is help a customer with an unsupported OS, such as Linux.
As I mentioned, the only guaranteed method is an external modem - not a USB one either, a proper serial hardware modem.Agreed about the USB, some of the older internals are H/W as well, although in the main they are ISA models.
Ring back and tell them you're using Windows. That's what we all did.That would work only if the ISP hadn't logged the previous call and put in the notes "Cmr using Linux" as we do. Personally I'd be highly suspicious of any customer who did that, and surely they'd have trouble following instructions for an OS they don't have in front of them? I recall one occasion where a caller claimed to be following everything I said until I asked her to click on the Start button. She claimed not to have one, at which point I found out she was using SoftWindows on a Mac!
Agreed. There are simply too many modems to get them all. If it was that easy, modem identification and driver installation would have been part of the distribution installer long ago - like network cards are today.I hope I haven't come over as argumentative as that was not my intent. However speaking from the other side of the fence as it were, my experiences may well have been different to yours.
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