What about controllerless "hardware" modems?

[Marin Krkac]

Johnson David wrote:

> On Sunday 18 January 2004 05:27 am, Marin Krkac wrote:
> 
>>I have an internal "hardware" modem. When I bought it they said it
>>was a hardware modem and it said so on the box too. It has an
>>Intel/Ambient chipset, or more precisely, as the windows driver says,
>>Intel 536ep. But I found out just a few days ago that it's not
>>actually a real hardware modem. It has a DSP but it's controllerless
>>- that part is in software. It's also called a HAM modem (a Host
>>Accelerated Modem). There is a linux driver but I think it's only
>>partially open-source. Is there any chance this modem might work
>>under FreeBSD?
> 
> 
> For technical advice on modems, I would redirect this question to the 
> freebsd-hardware or freebsd-questions lists. That's what they're there 
> for.

I wasn't exactly looking for technical advice. First I wanted to see if
there is any chance it would work at all. I still hope there is, so I
think I'm going to ask there.

> But on to non-technical answers. You're going to have a devil of a time 
> getting winmodems working under FreeBSD. Porting their drivers over can 
> be very problematic because of the differences in kernel achitectures. 
> I have heard that there had be some limited success with some modems, 
> but I don't know much more.

I know this modem isn't exactly what I expected (it's not completely in
hardware), but I wouldn't call it just a winmodem. The box clearly says
it's a "hardware-based modem, built-in processor", so I think that
should help a little to increase the chances it might work. I mean it
isn't a real hardware modem, but it isn't a soft-modem either. Because,
as I've said already, if it doesn't work, I really don't see a point in
running FreeBSD. There is no other way I can get on-line.

Thanks for your help.