How to get a dial-up 'net connect with Linux on a laptop?

[Josef Lowder]

Thanks to all who responded ... 
My follow-up comments and questions interspersed below: 

== One wrote: 
> You say modem in one moment, and wireless in another. 
> Maybe you should tell us what hardware your using for 
> the connection, then we'll be able to help you out. 
> Besides, it wasn't Microsoft that supported that hardware, 
> it was HP that chose it and packaged the drivers for it. 
> Remember, the manufacturers of the hardware make the drivers. 

I referred to both modem and wireless because I want to be able 
to connect both by modem and by wireless.  I wrote that I wanted: 
"... to get one that can connect to the 'net with an internal modem 
and [also] get a wireless connect" ...  Obviously, wireless only 
access is useless if and when there is no wireless signal available. 

The HP laptop that I purchased has the following: 
- Athlon 64 processor, 512 meg ram, 60-gig hd 
- Broadcom 802.11b/g Wlan 
- Internal modem AC97 Data Fax Soft Modem with Smart CP 
	on PCI bus0, device 20, function 6 
I chose it because of what I thought was a good price/value at $799. 

== Another wrote: 
> 1. unless the "internal" modem is one which is a well known 
> device to linux. it is a hopeless cause. 
> 2. you are better off getting a pcmcia modem 
> 3. go to http://linuxlaptops.org for all things laptop'ish 
> 4. for internal wireless, that is usually, the same as #1 
> EXCEPT for the Intel Wireless 2950ABG. 
> I bought a no-name laptop (had one made actually) and I specifically 
> said I wanted a Intel Centrino "M" chip and an Intel Wireless 2950ABG. 
> This worked OUT OF THE BOX with Mandriva 2005. 

Where did you get this laptop and what is the rest of its config 
and what price?  Is the Centrino "M" chip superior to the Athlon 64 
for this purpose? 

Can you also modem connect? 

> Well not quite out of the box ... let me explain ... 
> The wireless device came up as eth2, and Mandriva 2005 out of the box, 
> configured it correctly but ALSO configured the Shorewall Firewall at 
> the same time. The Firewall kept me from getting to the outside world with 
> eth2. After some head scratching and googling. I figured out how to add 
> eth2 to my firewall configuration, and immediately it "worked". 

Thanks again for the very helpful feedback and information. 

Joe 

------------------- 
I originally wrote: 
> On Friday 23 December 2005 06:52 pm, Josef Lowder wrote:
> > I've tried, Mandriva, PCLOS, Mepis, Xandros, and Ubuntu on my new
> > laptop, and none of them seem to be able to provide a modem connect to
> > the 'net.
> >
> > Why does this have to be so incredibly complicated?  Do I need to take
> > this new HP Pavilion ZV6100 back and get something different in order
> > to get one that can connect to the 'net with an internal modem and
> > get a wireless connect?  Why should one have to waste so much time
> > jumping through so many nuisance hoops to try to solve this mystery?
> >
> > While I hope to avoid M$ as much as possible, I do have to give them
> > credit in the fact that everything works, "out of the box" on this HP.
>
> > Isn't there some Linux distro that can match that performance
> > on a laptop at a reasonable price?