[buug] PC Card Modems?

Rick Moen rick at linuxmafia.com
Mon Apr 22 13:59:30 PDT 2002


Quoting Claude Rubinson (cmsclaud at arches.uga.edu):

> Second, I always thought that all pcmcia modems were hardware-based
> (specifically, that all would work without problem under Linux).  But
> looking into pcmcia modems on the web, I was surprised to see that
> U.S.  Robotics is now selling PC Card Winmodems.  And even their
> regular 56K PC Card Modem says "Modem is compatible with Windows 2000,
> Windows 98, and Windows 95. (This product will not work in MS-DOS
> shell or non-Microsoft operating systems.)"  A bit different from the
> standard "This product was designed for Windows" note.
> 
> One additionally oddity - the specs for both US Robotics modems (win
> and regular) are virtually identical. 

Yeah, doesn't that just suck?  It's like they've given over their entire
presence to the marketing department, and kicked out the techies
entirely, lest they divulge meaningful specifications to the customers.
I can only guess that they're deathly afraid of being asked telephone
questions that aren't covered in their technical support scripts, to the
point that they've brain-damaged their product specs.

I'd say your best bet, as always, is to take any product-information
with a big grain of salt, and mostly rely on Rob Clark's database:
http://www.idir.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html

> I'm certainly no expert in pcmcia, so I'm a bit confused.  Are there
> now pcmcia winmodems? 

You betcha.  But USR's assertion that a particular model works only with
MS-WindowsXX can't be relied on, either.

If y'all don't mind my indulging myself, all of this is a natural
consequence of Moen's Law of Bicycles:  "Good customers make for good
products." http://lists.svlug.org/pipermail/svlug/2001-April/034273.html

-- 
Cheers,               It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Rick Moen          It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
rick@            The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning,
linuxmafia.com         It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.




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