On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 05:01, rkzbos <jackrossini@
> After getting home, I read though the magazine and tried to follow the instructions to install the software to my
> 2nd computer running XP. The Linux Ubuntu 9.04 installation was successful. I now have two OS's on my
> 2nd computer.
Good Job! Welcome to the club ;-)
> At this point I am exploring the new OS, but one thing I want to do is get on the internet with it. The computer
> has an internal modem and I use dial-up. I do not care to download email with it at this time. I just need
> internet connection with it for now.
You do not have a modem. You do NOT have a modem... YOU do not have a
modem. You do not have a MODEM. What you have is what's called a
"winmodem" which is, in reality, nothing more than a sound card that
dumps its output to a phone line instead of a speaker. All the
magical modem bits are actually performed on your computers CPU
instead of in the modem via the driver. The correct term for this is
software modem. As opposed to a hardware modem, which is external,
and more often than not, connected by a serial cable, NOT USB...
though there may be actual hardware USB external modems, I think most
USB modems are still, at heart, winmodems, but that last bit is just a
supposition on my part.
Now, the question is, what KIND of modem do you have? You need to
know the make/model. Log in to your Linux system (or you can check,
most likely, in Windows via the Hardare Manager). In Linux, open a
terminal, and at the prompt use the command "lspci"
That will give you a listing of all the hardware in your computer that
is attached to the PCI bus... and somewhere in there will be your
modem.
Then go here: http://www.linmodem
Time was, you were SOL when it came to using software modems...
however, there ARE some drivers for SOME software modem chipsets, so
you MAY be able to use your PCI modem. However, the configuration for
this can be anywhere from easy to "OMG I WANT TO POKE MY EYES OUT",
just depends on what kind you have.
But in all honesty, give it a try, then when you're done, go buy a
nice external SERIAL modem... I'd suggest one of the nice USRobotics
modems... they usually last forever. I've had two USR external modems
that lasted me well over a decade, and the last one I only had to use
for about a year and a half before they finally turned DSL on in my
area.
> Also, other then the magazine I bought which was quite expensive, is their a good magazine for newbies that I
> should subscribe to?
I've never heard of the one you bought, so I can't say anything about
it, but to me it sounds more like a quarterly HOW-TO Install guide
than an actual magazine.
Now, this is showing my age, because I only read things online these
days, but the following always seemed to be OK to me, as long as you
do the same "ignore the slants, advertisements and biases" as you
would with ANY periodical or news source:
Linux Journal (good, but I think more business oriented than others)
Linux Magazine (always seemed more general in scope)
There may be some others, and there are tons of online linux magazines
as well. Though I don't know of ANY that are actually geared toward
new users... That's what books are for ;-) and places like this.
My advice would be to ask questions here, experiment, maybe buy the
next issue of the one you just bought and see if that suits you, or
and invest in a couple books... Learning Linux from O'Reilly is one
of my favorites (and that's an opinion that I'm sure can be debated)
and there are plenty of others that range in quality from piss poor to
pretty damn good.
Good luck, and ask away!
Jeff
>
> Thank you
> Jack R.
>
>
>
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