Choosing a modem

[Nameless]

Hi. Alright I have read that little bit about choosing a modem in the NHF.
What modem should I buy? What brand is better? What is the best model of that brand? What do you recomend more for a newbie, internal or external? I think I am going to get an external but what one? What one is the easiest and what one are you using and personaly recomend?

Thankyou, :D

[FoBoT]

buy an EXTERNAL serial modem (NOT USB!!)

the little power brick plug is only mildly annoying, you will get over it

any brand should work just fine, i have used at home on linux, USR sportster that goes for ~$100 and Best Data (off-brand) that goes for ~$70, and couldn't tell the diff

[Ace69]

I work at an ISP and am constantly fixing winmodems. Don't get those because they use your CPU to incorporate some internal functions that the board on the modem should do. I would go with a Creative Labs Modem Blaster internal. I have never dealt with the external ones before.

Ace

[fancypiper]

I would check Cheap Linux Box (http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~comech/tools/CheapBox.html#modem) modem section and Modem HOWTO (http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO-2.html) for advice.

[Craig McPherson]

I used to always recommend external modems, but I tend to move my computer around a lot, and I get very, very tired of dealing with the extra two cables (data and power). Tangled messes of cables are a problem already, adding two more doesn't help. Other than that, external modems are nice.

If you want an internal modem, get a 3COM 2976 PCI 56K Faxmodem for $54US. It's very nice. Do NOT ever buy a modem for less than $40, because it's guaranteed to be a Winmodem.