[COLUG] AOpen DVD drive issue

[William Yang]

Dave wrote:

> Agreed. As I said, I told them I wanted a board with an old style serial
> port so I could hook up an external modem for faxing so my choices of
> motherboards was limited. On a related note, anyone have experience with
> the usb to serial port adapters? I found one that claimed Linux support.

I haven't, but would like to suggest a good, working alternative.  If
you're prepared to buy anew, I've had great luck with the two USB modems.
My cell phone, when tethered, appears to be a USB modem (and can be used as
a dialup device).  I also bought a non-major-name modem ("Best Data 56K USB
Modem") which does both FAX and data at 56k (v.90).

The big issue is that you have to buy a hardware modem, rather than a
software-based one (this is usually labeled on the box -- look for
Macintosh support; it's a reasonably reliable indicator!).  I bought one at
Micro Center last summer.  All it takes is loading the right kernel modules
and you're good to go.

While I still look for boards with standard serial ports, it's not for
modems -- it's for serial console cables (since I do a fair amount of work
on devices that have serial consoles, and I have an old high-capacity UPS
with fresh batteries that has a serial managmenet interface)....

	-Bill
-- 
William Yang
wyang at gcfn.net