On 23 Mar 98 at 22:14, Michi Imamura wrote: > I have a friend who is desperate to add a modem to a modemless 386. I > was wondering if any modem will work or do I need a special legacy > modem. I have a Maxtech 33.6K modem with rockwell chipset. I don't want > to waste my time trying to install a modem that won't work. My friend > has a 386 with only 2Mb RAM. I know 386's can have modems but what is > the limit? Is the Maxtech too advanced. My friend doesn't have the > funds to purchase a new computer and just wants to be able to use > Juno(a free e-mail provider). Any ideas? His system probably doesn't do PnP, but a non-PnP modem should work fine. Lately I've had good results with the Best Data 336F 33.6K internal modem, with jumpers for COM1/2/3/4 and about 12 different IRQ settings. I think it uses a 16-bit ISA slot; he might only have an 8-bit slot free, and that may limit his choices. But that's the only limitation I can see. For an external modem, he needs a free serial port, of course. With 2MB, he's probably not running Windows, and certainly not all the time. I would avoid any "WinModem" model, as these will not work from DOS or any other non-Windows OS. On the other hand, if he does sometimes run Windows, the UART between CPU and modem should be a 16550A or better. Virtually all internal modems meet this criterion, but if he wants to use an external modem then his existing serial ports may only be 8250s and so a serial port card may be a wise investment. David G