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