[Coco] Old ISA modems with jumpers...

[David]

On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 at 08:55:20PM -0400, KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/18/04 11:56:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> dbree at duo-county.com writes:
> 
> > Do you have a spare serial port on the box?  You can still get external
> >  modems.  I'm kinda partial to these varmints anyway..
> 
> I deliberately bought an external modem for my new PC a couple years ago:
> 
> 1. You can watch the lights and see how the transfers are doing, both up and 
> downloading

Yes, you certainly can.  It's possible that one could detect when
unauthorized activity was going on.

> 2. You can use it on any PC, including Linux

I'd be inclined to change that to "especially" Linux.  Many of the
internal modems (PCI, anyway) are software modems (WinModems).  AIUI,
many, if not most, don't have drivers for them.  An external doesn't
even need a driver, as such, just a few AT commands to get them online
and you're all set.

> 3. Doesn't take an expansion slot

That's not a problem in itself in my case, but, given the power
consumption and heat generation of the modern computers (although mine
ain't one of them), it's one less card to obstruct air flow and use
power thus generating heat inside the case.

> 4.  Once in a while a modem gets internally hung up in some odd way
> (mine likes to play the Touch Tones an octave lower, which the phone
> company doesn't recognize), and such that resetting and rebooting your
> computer won't fix an internal modem (my internal on the old PC did
> things like this).  An external modem, a flick of the switch, count to
> 5, power back on, and there you are.
 
> 5. OK, so it messes up your desk.  Like we CocoNuts really care?

As you said above, all the pretty lights make for decoration, not
clutter ;-)  But, seriously, they are much easier to diagnose.