Even though DSL and cable high speed Internet access has become quite common in most parts of the country, a lot of computer users still use a dial-up connection. A dial-up connection is still needed for those people who also use their computer for more than just online surfing, such as sending faxes and answering telephone calls. Most Linux distributions will configure your DSL or cable connections during the installation process. The cheap little dial-up modems, also known as Win modems are a totally different story.

The modem that came with your PC or laptop computer is not a true hardware modem. In other words, the manufacturer of that modem skimped on hardware components to probably cut down on production costs for one thing. Your computers CPU has to make up for the missing hardware components. It can turn into hours of frustration to get your modem to work, if at all, with Linux as there isn't a Linux driver for every modem out there. There is something you can do to avoid this, and get your Linux computer online with dial-up a lot faster.

 The best way is to use a true hardware modem and forget about the internal modem.  This is what I highly recommend to someone brand new to Linux, with very little computer experience, or someone who really doesn't have the time to spend, trying to configure the hardware. Hardware modems that will work with Linux can be either a serial modem or a USB modem.  The cost of a USB or serial modem can range from $32.00 to $85.00 depending on what features you are looking for, in a 56k modem. As the USB port has pretty much replaced the serial port, a USB modem may be your best choice.

If you really want to spend the time trying to get your internal PCI modem to work with Linux, there is an organization dedicated to helping you do just that. It is at http://linmodems.org/  and it is probably the best help site pertaining to internal PCI modems.