From owner-freebsd-hardware Fri Jul 19 11:57:03 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA12969 for hardware-outgoing; Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:57:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cbgw1.att.com (cbgw1.att.com [192.20.239.133]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA12957 for ; Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:57:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from aloft by cbig1.att.att.com (SMI-8.6/EMS-1.2 sol2) id OAA11130; Fri, 19 Jul 1996 14:51:55 -0400 Received: from stargazer (stargazer.cnet.att.com) by aloft (4.1/DCS-aloft-M5.1) id AA12121; Fri, 19 Jul 96 14:55:29 EDT Received: by stargazer (4.1/DCS-aloft_client-S2.1) id AA15834; Fri, 19 Jul 96 14:55:27 EDT Date: Fri, 19 Jul 96 14:55:27 EDT From: gtc@aloft.att.com (gary.corcoran) Message-Id: <9607191855.AA15834@stargazer> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, mgessner@aristar.com Subject: Re: WinModems and FreeBSD Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Regarding: > I'd like to know if anyone knows why modems like the WinModem from USR >or Supra 288i PnP don't work with other OS's? The modem accepts >commands from the host, not the other way around, so the modem cannot >know what the host OS is unless there is some specific software you have to >run to "open" the modem up. Is this the case? The Supra 288i PNP may be a different case, but the USR WinModem I believe is one of the "controller-less" modems. That is, to save a few bucks, they removed the controller CPU from the card, and replace its functionality by a VxD - a Windows-specific Virtual device Driver. That means that the "modem" is useless without its VxD, which of course only runs on Windows. So you may as well forget about running it on any other operating system. Sorry, but you'll have to buy a "real" modem (with a controller)... Gary