Where Art Thou, BSD Winmodem Project?

JRAC writes: "Not long ago, anyone with a winmodem had pretty much no hope getting it to work under Linux. Now with projects like linmodems.org, Linux users with a dreaded winmodem actually have a chance at getting Linux to detect their modem. I myself am a Linux user with a winmodem which works fine, because mine has a Lucent chipset, which has fairly good Linux driver support. But I am trying to migrate to FreeBSD. I knew when I installed BSD that I had no chance getting my modem working, but it didn't bother me. Now after spending hours searching Google trying to find some Lucent drivers for FBSD, I have started to wonder when is someone going to start a BSD winmodem project? Aren't there any winmodem users out there running BSD that are tired of downloading drivers only to find they don't work. What we really need is bsdmodems.org"

Comments

here's idea why the project isn't happening yet.

[markjugg]

I use FreeBSD as a home machine, and went through some pain to figure it wouldn't recognize my modem because it was a WinModem, and replaced it with a conventional modem.

I think the reason there isn't more happening here is that FreeBSD is focused more on the server market. If you are running a server, you probably aren't using modem, you probably wouldn't want a WinModem, or you wouldn't mind paying for another modem if you needed to.

I would like to see the project happen as well. However, I knew that Linux has going to have better support for the Desktop environment when I set up the machine, and could have used that and gotten WinModem support on the same hardware if that was a priority.

In my case, I use FreeBSD widely for projects at work, so I chose to keep things simple by keeping the environment consistent at home.

Why?

[Detritus]

This isn't meant to be flamebait, but why bother? It sounds like a great deal of work just to implement a fundamentally flawed concept. Real modems are cheap, work well and don't suck up expensive CPU cycles.

The drivers exist as .ko

[Leimy]

Kernel modules have existed for linmodems on BSD in the past. I "stumbled" over them a few months ago... [up to 6 months ago]. Check daily.daemonnews.org... They may have some information...

Or you could just buy an external modem like everyone else in the world suggests.. Of course if you have a laptop this is a completely different problem. FBSD currently has shaky cardbus support so you woul have to obtain a REAL PCMCIA modem card and not a 32bit cardbus card. [PCMCIA is only 16bit if I recall correctly]

Caller ID?

[aozilla]

In theory a winmodem could process the caller ID signal, right? Has anyone actually done this, or at least started to work on it?

Re:Caller ID?

[mattdm]

I've never done this with a winmodem, but just plain old modems do this fine. AT#CID=1 (or #CID=2 for unformated output). I assume if you got a winmodem working and it supported caller id, it'd be the same.

Re:Caller ID?

[aozilla]

I haven't looked into the details very much, but my intention is to eventually set up my own analog PBXish system. I'd imagine that a regular modem isn't going to be able to handle things such as sending a 90-volt AC wave at 20 hertz in order to ring the phones when a digital call comes in over the internet connection.

Re:It's obvious

[tjwhaynes]

There's no funky name like "linmodem" that's appropriate for BSD.

BuSteDmodem.

moDaemon

Or even (and you might take this as advice if you have a winmodem) Binmodem.

Cheers,

Toby Haynes