<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>My
understanding of external modems - the entire "modem" function is run from
hardware and associated firmware from inside the external modem - the PC
(regardless of operating system) has nothing to do with how the modem functions.
The PC merely sends (and recieves) via the serial port and the modem takes care
of it from there.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>You
may need a driver to get additional functionality from the modem but it will
probably operate acceptably as soon as you plug it in.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I have
a USR (aka 3Com) Sportster 56K which performs brilliantly with both Windows and
Linux. The Linux (E-Smith) recognises the modem as a USR and nothing further is
needed.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
other advantage of an external is that, if it does get screwed up in some way,
you can turn it off / on again without rebooting the
PC.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=289434620-01092003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Plus
the flashing lights look cool ;-)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> kadim martana
[mailto:kadimmartana@yahoo.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, 1 September 2003 5:51
p.m.<BR><B>To:</B> wellylug@lists.naos.co.nz<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [wellylug]
A real newbie needs help - internet connection<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<P>Thank you for all the helps and offers....</P>
<P>First, I am still curious with what I've done with my 'poor modem' -
downloading its driver and trying to install it into my mandrake (which I am
not succeed yet).</P>
<P>Second, does buying an external modem really outweigh those internal
modems? I'm affraid that I still need to download (surely?), keep the
driver into a cd, install it via terminal (that I don't quite
understand -..that's what happened when I tried the hsflinmodem). </P>
<P>I'm looking forward to having other explanations</P>
<P>Regards,</P>
<P>Kadim</P>
<P>
<HR SIZE=1>
Do you Yahoo!?<BR><A
href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=10469/*http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com">Yahoo!
SiteBuilder</A> - Free, easy-to-use web site design
software</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>