Linux on a Dell Inspiron 3700/7000/7500

Modem

"Don't get the internal modem [for Linux]!!! Lilla saved me in her FAQ by telling us that the internal modem is a winmodem, which is useless in Linux. Either of the other [PCMCIA modems sold by Dell] should be fine." -- Mark Hilgart, newsgroup.

Myself, I bought the 3Com 56k Global modem as part of the package. The modem comes with X2 support only; you have to download the V.90 upgrade yourself from Dell's support web pages. The PSION Gold Card Global 56k+Fax modem is known to work too.

The 3Com 10/100+56k combo card Dell sells is modified specifically for their laptops. Furthermore, the 56k part is a winmodem, which means that it is not supported by linux. (Note: there was an older version of the 3CCFEM656B that did have a real UART chip in it). Thanks to WindWalker <WindWalker@peacefire.org> for this information.

PPP Tip: On some distributions of linux, such as Redhat 6, you may need to add the following lines to /etc/conf.modules if they don't already exist (thanks to Peter Helnwein <helnwein@ce.berkeley.edu> for noticing):

alias ppp-compress-21 bsd_comp
alias ppp-compress-24 ppp_deflate
alias ppp-compress-26 slhc