What about controllerless "hardware" modems?

[Johnson David]

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.

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.

You're best bet is still to avoid any winmodems. As you've discovered, 
"hardware" modems don't necessarily have all of their functionality in 
hardware. Virtually all external serial modems are real modems, but 
very few external USB modems are.

If you were told by the store/salesman that it was a hardware modem, but 
that it requires functionality not located in hardware, there should be 
adequate ground for returning it to the store, even if they have a poor 
return policy.

Someone really needs to come up with a list of 100% genuine hardware 
modems. I don't use a modem any longer, so I can't tell you what works 
for me. I had used Actiontec in the past with success, but looking at 
their website, their internal modems do not look like they're "real" 
modems any longer. But their external serial 56K/V.92 modem makes a 
special emphasis to say that they are. But it's twice the price of 
their internal modem. Sigh.

David