Easy or not easy 861

I'm probably going to regret posting this, but ...

I don't deny that life under a communist dictatorship or other oppressive regime is "the only option" for many on this planet.

Being as this is a solutions group rather than an advocacy group, here's an attempt at some solutions.

Regarding the software "modems" that really aren't modems at all: Have the manufacturers supplied specifications so the open source developers can write drivers without having to reverse engineer the hardware? If not, the fault lies with the hardware manufacturer, not the software developers.

If so, hardware specs have been published, you should find a developer and ask for a complete refund of everything you paid for the non-existent driver.

The US Robotics modem I bought five or six years ago has worked reasonably well as a modem, and it can send faxes, but it doesn't receive faxes. If you want a less expensive hardware (real) modem, the GoodWill nearest my home often has a few for about US$8 each. It wouldn't surprise me if you could get a decent one on Ebay for a decent price.

My HP ScanJet 6300C has worked pretty well with two different Linux machines, using both SCSI and USB interfaces (not at the same time, of course). MandrX 10.0 and LE2005 had difficulties with the USB side, but MandrX 2006 seems to do quite well with it. If your particular Epson scanner has difficulties, there are probably several possible solutions. Not to sound like a GoodWill sales droid, but the GoodWill nearest my home has a very long shelf stacked about three deep with scanners for about US$20 each, some of which may be better than the one I'm using (less the SCSI interface).

-- Robert Riches (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)