Re: [hylafax-users] Modem Recommendation

[Bill Binko <bill@binko.net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Hi Everyone,
> I am a newbie to Hylafax and I would to seek your advice.
> I want to have an internal PCI modem installed and have 
> Hylafax use this internal modem but I have no idea which 
> modem to buy, 3Com(US Robotics), SMC? Can someone please give 
> me some advice as to which internal modem is supported by 
> Redhat Linux and has proven to work with Hylafax and also how 
> to configure this modem in Linux?
> 
> All help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

We recently looked at a number of PCI modems, and we decided to go with
the MultiTech MultiModem ZPX.  You can find info on them at:
http://www.multitech.com/PRODUCTS/MultiModemZPX/  They are a bit more
expensive than the other modems (they go for around $100US), but have
several benefits:

33.6 kbps (aka Class 2.1/SuperG3/V.34 faxing) Support (While others have
56k data connections, most max out at 14.4 for fax)
Excellent Linux Support (including flashing their firmware through Linux
http://mtflashwiz.sourceforge.net/)
All the features we need (distinctive ring was a key one)

We slapped three of them in one server and one in another, and have had
no problem with them whatsoever.

If you want other ideas, start with this list:
http://www.idir.net/~gromitkc/pci_list.php

Go with a "Controller Based" or "Full Hardware Modem".  For USR, it is
the "Performance Pro" modem, I'm ont familiary enough with SMC.

One other thing to note is that there seems to be an affinity for the
MultiTech brand among the Hylafax developers.  It seems that MultiTech
has a reputation for hitting the specs pretty closely and that has
gained them some fans.  Interestingly, there are notes in MultiTech's
manuals that seem that the admiration goes both ways: they mention
feature of "some fax server software" such as "adaptive answer" by name.

That is a very non-scientific benefit, but we've found it to be an
important one when we use open-source software.  The hardware used by
the most developers (not end users) gets supported first and best.

Good Luck
Bill


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