Need recommendations on a plain old analog Dial up modem

[lothario]

(DSL is too expensive in this area and high speed is not necessary.)

I need recommendations on a plain old analog Dial up modem that:
1. Is known to work with Knoppix.
2. Is an external analog modem.
3. Saves the dial-up number, user id and password in the modem ONLY.
4. Has an ethernet port.



This way any Knoppix PC (with LAN card) can connect to the analog modem's ethernet port.
The analog modem should dial out on demand.
I don't want to save this Dial-up information on the PC because the users bring different (versions of) Knoppix Live CDs.

Any recommendations?

These users utilize their Knoppix Live CDs to basically do text chat and occasional email checking.

[Harry Kuhman]

(DSL is too expensive in this area and high speed is not necessary.)

I need recommendations on a plain old analog Dial up modem that:
1. Is known to work with Knoppix.
2. Is an external analog modem.
3. Saves the dial-up number, user id and password in the modem ONLY.
4. Has an ethernet port.

This way any Knoppix PC (with LAN card) can connect to the analog modem's ethernet port.
The analog modem should dial out on demand.
I don't want to save this Dial-up information on the PC because the users bring different (versions of) Knoppix Live CDs.

Any recommendations?

These users utilize their Knoppix Live CDs to basically do text chat and occasional email checking.

What you're asking for does not exist, as far as I know, in just a modem. But you should be able to combine a standard external modem and a router with dial-up modem fall-back to acomplish this. As long as the high speed port isn't connected to anything, the router should fall back to the dial-up modem and use that connection. The dial-up number, ID and password would be in the router, not the modem, but with a little duct tape one could make a single device that he called his external ethernet based modem that would fit the discription. The device can be used by multiple systems at once (although it will not be fast considering the dial-up modem, but that's already a given). As a side benefit, when you are ready to go high speed you just plug in the high speed connection and you are good to go. I believe Mutlitech and SMC both make routers with this fallback feature, I would expect the SMC to be more reasonably priced. Others may make them too, it's worth shopping around.

But while you consider high speed access too expensive, you may want to consider how much you are going to pay for just the hardware to stay with last century's technology. I don't know about the area that you plan to use this in, but where I am located there is now a "DSL Lite" that costs little more than I used to pay for dial-up access, and while the bandwidth isn't great it's much much better than dial-up and doesn't tie up the telephone line (so you can afford to use the connection all day and night if needed for that big download). And such a service will work with any of the dirt cheap routers on the market now, no need for a router with a special fall-back feature. I would at least do a little homework to try to determine what high speed services are expected to roll out in the intended location in the next few months before springing for both a fall-back router and an external modem to do this your way.

[lothario]

Such devices do exist.
I just found one.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1651390,00.asp
http://www.actiontec.com/products/broadband/dual_pcmodem/specifications.php

I am told there are similar products from other manufacturers.
I am still looking.

[Harry Kuhman]

Such devices do exist.
I just found one.
It looks like you found just what you want. ActionTec makes pretty good modems, and this device seems to be priced as good as any external modem is likely to be. Although I still doubt the wisdom of investing in a dial-up modem in this day and age except for very special cases, if one does want an external dial-up modem to work with Knoppix, this sure looks like a good choice.

[lothario]

I understand your points.


I am trying to help out some people.

This setup is for 3 elderly low-income users who share a house and a phone line.
Internet speed is not a big issue for them.
They have time to spare and prefer a big monitor and bigger fonts.

They have AT&T as their phone service provider.
But the copper wire belongs to Verizon.

The DSL providers in the area only work with SBC and Verizon.
Even Verizon will not provide DSL on this line.

AT&T will charge them over $30/month.
But the Dial-up is about $10.

Per user a $3.33/month Internet access is acceptable.

The PC has no hard drive and no floppy drive.
With a Knoppix Live CD they have no real configuration issues to deal with.
When they are done, they just hit the power button.

[tdjokic]

Until this moment, never heard of such modems! This can be very usefull for PC's w/o serial ports - laptops&new mb, doesn't it?

[lothario]

Yup. With a decent amount of RAM, CDROM drive and an ethernet port, you got a good "terminal" with its own terminal server.
Low maintenance. Fewer movable parts.

[sakiZ]

Wow. I've learned something new. Amazing.

You got me curious.

Let us know if it works with Knoppix.

sakiZ

[sakiZ]

Your idea is so cool, you got my wheels turning.

SnapGear may have something you could use. May be a little more expensive than the modem you describe, but not too much more.

sakiZ