On 15 Aug 2006 14:02:27 -0700, "toronado455"
<toronado455@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>kony wrote:
>
>> That's not necessarily a winmodem vs hardware issue
>
>True. Here are a couple cheap ones I'm looking at. Both are internal
>PCI.
>
>This one has an Intel chipset and claims to be hardware-based:
>http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16825180001

There are different levels of hardware support for a modem,
one of the most easily distinguished features of a true
(commonly called) hardware modem is that it needs no driver
support, as that is built into even ancient and crude
operating systems). Although some have an *.INF file
called a driver, it is merely a cosmetic identification
measure, not necessary to get it to work.

This one though, has a winmodem driver, 350K or larger
download (depending on OS) rather than a ~5K INF file.
http://www.encore-usa.com/Drivers/EN..._Driver_XP.zip


Looks like a winmodem to me, and one that costs slightly
more due to having the audio functionality/jacks on it. If
you want jacks, ok, but if not then you can save a couple
bucks and get one that's even smaller (useful if you want
best airflow to cards above, like a video card).


>
>This one has a Motorola chip and is software based:
>http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16825180007


That'd work too, but there was a time when Lucent (Agere)
had the best drivers so I'd probably go with this one,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16825180008
Things change though, maybe the others' drivers are as good
today but it may not even matter, it is only for faxing...

The following is a hardware PCI modem for example,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16825104131