Hardware modem

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

Lars Eighner wrote:
> My question is about getting Fedora 15 to recognize a hardware modem and
> then setting up ppp "on demand" to use it.
>
> I made the mistake of installing Fedora 15 with the GUI.  This only told me
> that my modem was "unplugged."  And I could not figure out how to drop out
> of the GUI to a command line terminal. So I overwrote the installation with
> "minimal." Now I get a command line prompt (in teeny tiny font).  However I
> could not find anything helpful (to me) in /dev or /etc/ppp.
>
> I have googled many combinations, but so far all the queries about modems I
> have read are about getting winmodems to work.  I do not have a winmodem. I
> have a 3COM PCI (internal) hardware modem which works flawlessly with
> FreeBSD sio (that's the serial io device).
>
> If I can find out how to configure a dialer and authentication, I would like
> for ppp "on demand" to work for my only non-root user, which will be me.
> Otherwise, I just got a nine piece coaster set for $30 from OSdisc.com.
>
> (PS: I am a 20-year user of FreeBSD.)
>

Personally, I find wvdial to be the easiest way to configure and dial 
modems from the command line in Linux.  It's usually installed in 
default Fedora configurations (but possibly not the minimal one).  If 
it's not installed you may run "yum install wvdial" to download and 
install it via the Internet or alternatively locate and install it from 
the install DVD.

To get started with wvdial, run the "wvdialconf" command as root.  That 
will detect your modem and create a basic configuration file in 
/etc/wvdial.conf with the discovered settings.  You can then edit that 
file and provide configuration options such as the telephone number to 
dial, username/password, etc.  For a complete description of the syntax 
amd options available therein, just run "man wvdial.conf".

Once you've configured it properly, just run "wvdial" to establish a 
connection.  By default, you must be root to do this.  To permit any 
arbitrary user account to run wvdial and establish a PPP connection, 
just add that user to the "dip" group.  For instance, to add a user 
account named "lars", just run "usermod -aG dip lars".

-T.C.