| I have computer for the past 5 years. In my computer experience witch is about 10 years, I had millions of troubles with the variety of the hardware. From the day I have bought my computer I only upgraded it, never replaced it completely. One of the things that I'm proud about my computer is my dialup modem. I know, many people would say "Are you kidding?" but in my country dialup connection is still the only "usual" way for getting to the internet. What is so special about it? Well first of all I must say that I have had allot of reading before I bought that modem and the comments were different. For some people this modem was a nightmare, for others nothing special, and only for some people this modem was a real thing. I belong to that (third) group of the people. As I was very interested in Linux I realized that I will need an extern or intern hardware modem. Till the time I was buying my computer the internal hardware modems were already the history. I couldn't get the US Robotics or the Rockwell external modem so I decided to buy this one: Pegas 56K V.90 USB Modem. I must say that I had a few disappointments in the beginning. First I realized that my external soft usb modem don't work on the Linux kernel from that time although the kernel had the support for the usb modems. The second thing was the decision of the manufacturer ST Microelectronics to stop making these peace of hardware and also to stop making the driver updates. From that the time when SmartLink has started the driver development for my modem, my life was a bit prettier. The internet connection is permanently fast, reliable, and stable. The time needed to connect is smaller any other modem I have tried is spending to connect to the ISP. The control panel provided by the driver while I'm connected is the most usable thing I ever had on my computer concerning the monitoring and informational tools and programs. And in the end, if you list trough the software packages (for example in Yast - SuSe 9), you will see my modem's driver. Yes that's right. SmartUSB56. How many modem drivers are provided by the Linux distributions with their name separated in the special section that you know of? :) :p The technical stuff: Hardware The SmartUSB56 reference design supports: · Optional Call Progress Buzzer Software SmartUSB56™ drivers conforms to: · TAPI · Multimedia API · AT command set standard · WHQL logo certification Chipset ST7554 USB World Modem Controller · Package TQFP48 (7 x 7 x 1.4 mm) · Single 5V Power Supply (USB bus powered) · Integrated 3.3V Regulator · USB 1.1 (12Mbps) Compliance · Temperature Range 0-70ºC STLC7550 Analog Front End · Package TQFP48 (7 x 7 x 1.4 mm) · 87dB Dynamic range · Temperature Range 0-70ºC SmartUSB56™ Manufacturing Kit · Reference card with Drivers · Schematics, Gerber Files, BOM · PTT Wizard - Homologation Tool · SL Custom - Customization Tool · SL Record - Line recording Tool System Requirements · Pentium class PC (233 MHz and above) · Windows (98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP) · USB port · 8 Mbytes RAM Best regards. gazda@paracinac.com |
