flexfax: FAQ: Modems

[Peter Stamfest <peter.stamfest@eunet.at>]

Hi all, 

I know that this is a FAQ, but most information about the good-bad modem
topic are quite outdated and searching the archive yields varying results
and no "hard facts". Needing to recommend new modems for HylaFAX I
wonder if anybody has information on currently available fax modems like
the following:

* 3com - all models (still rather to be assumed unusable, I guess). They
  are easily available, and most sites I know already have them, so the
  question if they are usable occurs quite often.

* ELSA  Microlink Office, ext.
* ELSA MicroLink[tm] 33.6TQV

* Multi-Tech modems seem to be good, but they are not that common

* ZyXEL - How about the Omni 288S

How about internal modems to be used for faxing under linux? (minus
win-modems)

I also think that there should be some better way to get information like
this. Wouldn't it be possible to write some tools that come with hylafax
and that gather statistics for used modem along with the used
configuration and that generate reports to be sent to some modem-list
maintainer. These reports could then be used to keep the FAQ reasonably
current. 

Of course, modem information would also have to be included (model,
firmware version), and the information should be ripped from any "personal
data" like phone numbers dialed.

The use of this tool could then be integrated into things like the faxcron
script (ie. generate the report once every two month, and tell the admin
he/she should mail the result...)

Such tools would also help to identify problems and to identify modems
that should be replaced with better ones.

This may be a bad idea, but that area IS a problem.

peter