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BeBits > TableOfContents > BeOS > HardwareSupport
Save yourself the trouble and BUY an external hardware modem that plugs into your serial port!
Well, kind of harsh, but that might do if you have an unsupported card. If you just need to get a supported card working then read on.
If you are like me, it is in the tinkering that makes it so fun. Heck, we all can go out and buy a working windows computer. Slowly this page is getting finished
Get the beos bible, did you check here? http://www.frizbe.net/
I want to put "how to" on mainly PCI card modems and might add info on trimodem drivers. This doesn't cover cable modems or ADSL modems. That might be on another page. Also a brief intro on how beos boots a driver and links to begroovy threads on modem as well as frizbe gobe. USB external modems , network file to bypass some dns problems - custom AT commands. Phooy -just start with AT first.
-- cut fat
Getting those pesky modems to work is right!
Covering a lot of topics here. This is not really a step by step way to get your modem working. It is a place to start and come back to. You will have to do the searching and understand how BeOS uses a PCI card and driver. Then you will need to get it to dial and connect. Then you will have to surf using at least IP and maybe DNS and DHCP. Those three things must happen to surf. 1.Card working 2. Connect 3. Surf. Might have to find an external serial hard modem before it is all said and done. :(
Step One
PCI Drivers. (not usually needed info if you have an external serial hard modem) A simple explanation of the way beos uses a PCI card and a driver. There are two parts to the process. On each and every boot up beos must identify the cards and secondly match a driver to what it has found. Beos is not like windows/linux. You don't add/remove hardware from the OS, so forget that concept. The first part starts when beos boots, it looks to what hardware it has each time. The machine pci bus will report to beos, say a communication card by ABCD modem company (vendor ID) and Model 123 (chip number) as what it is hopefully. You will be able to see this in ->Preferences->Devices double click pci card and see info. This is very important to know and view.
The second part is when beos searches for drivers that have #1 the exact match for vendor/chip and #2 a sort of guess. To determine if the correct driver is more difficult. (might cover in different page) Now we are getting on to finding out what we have and can start a trouble shooting process.
You must understand devices before you can too much further. Study these links.
Beos can report many PCI cards based on what the PCI bus reports. That doesn't mean that a correct driver or any driver has been loaded to operate it that board. Guess what? After all that info I'll say that many "hard" pci modems should work with a bit of work. They sort of become part of the machine like a serial port is part of the machine.
Modem types.
Hard, soft, controllerless, and where/how they install like internal (pci&isa&pcmcia) and external (serial&usb.) Modem riser cards have been reported to work, kind of a sidestep to a pci card. An example of a hard modem is almost any serial external modem. Because they must talk to the machines UART controller in the serial port they have a UART chip in them. BeOS supports almost all external serial modems. The modem takes serial data and converts it to a tone package to the phone line. It also controls the flow of serial data and tone data. No CPU time is used controlling the modem connection. We won't cover data compression or error correction. The similar process occurs on any USB/PCI/ISA/PCMCIA hard modem.
Soft controllers pass some of the connection process on to the operating system while the controllerless are almost completely software controlled. Almost just a way to make a tone and connect to the computer. This is where the dreaded WinModem comes in. Some are supported either via R.5.0X or a winmodem driver called trimodem from R5.1.
USB modems offer hard/soft/controllerless(winmodem) too. USB hard modems may work. They need a usb_acm driver. An R5 driver listed below. The usb_acm driver in dano R 5.1 works on the R5.1 usb stack.
PCMCIA cards also come in hard/soft/controllerless.
Step 2.
Getting a connection. Pretty much we can stop here if your ISP doesn't offer any linux tips. If they are a "use our software only" then you might have to pay a better ISP your hard earned money. Where are we now? How about we try getting it to dial our ISP. From YOUR ISP you will need a (hopefully) non-toll number. You will need at least one or more DNS IP address(s). Does your ISP use PAP or CHAP? What is the logon? Most sites don't tell you that much. Hey, look in the dial up panels to add this info in. You have to get that info from your ISP! You will need to pick a modem and port. Hopefully you know what brand you have or looked it up in Step 1. Does Be have a listing? (explain tab areas here jefro) Try the closest to your modem if no exact match. Try to connect. Listen if you can to the modem or even pick on the phone to listen how far it connects. Click the chat and or log all bits for further info. Look for the error messages. Use a generic modem and use only the AT command at first. Most of the other commands improve the speed and compression, things we don't care about just yet. Bebits has a app to add in more modem choices, they are pre made init strings along with the names for the modems to appear on the modem choice. The link below to modem help has super info on controller types and init strings. (put more info here jefro_
Step 3.
Test your IP. Might as well try your browser on Bebits.com or your favorite site. Use the terminal and try the ping to a KNOWN good IP address. Some sites like Cnet.com Symantec.com and others allow a ping to test. The command is "ping 192.168.0.1" Use the correct IP not the 198... Go to another working computer and do a ping www.bebits.com and see if you can get the number. Guess what? You will have to get that IP address from a working connection. Hello friend? Can you...
Pinging to your local loopback or static IP number doesn't tell us much other than the IP stack is sort of working. You will have to get an external ping to work. That will tell us if you can get online. Now if you can ping all day long but can't access http://www.bebits.com with the URL bebits (BeOS browser's default is to add in the http://www. and the .com to save you time) but you can use the IP address 208.245.212.78 then there is hope in making a hosts file under /etc/. Beos looks to resolve the URL bebits first to the file hosts. It is useful for local lan setups and when the DNS isn't working. Not all DNS spec's work with beos. The file is only a listing of IP address in the first column and the URL in the second column.
Links--Read them--study them--understand them. :)
Any more links? Let me know. Any thoughts on more/better?
Jefro 11/02
Thanks Z
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