internal modem 3122

Tony Lawrence

I have been running computers with internal modems since 1996 here at home. I have never had to shut down a machine to clear anything in a modem. I have never even had to re-boot (while running Linux, that is).

I have had near-misses with lightning that caused the UPSs to go on battery. But I have surge protectors on the telephone and ethernet lines as well as the built-in surge protectors in the UPSs. Furthermore, each UPS is plugged into an outlet that has nothing else plugged into it, and that outlet goes direct to the power panel and has nothing else on that circuit. They go to adjacent circuit breakers so are on either side of a 220volt center-tapped line. As required by the code around here, the power panel is grounded in two places: one to a stake in the ground and one to the cold water pipe as it enters the house from the ground.

Now in my opinion (I used to do electrical engineering in the distant past), a direct hit would fry the computer anyhow unless I was very lucky, but near misses seem to have been taken in stride. If it takes a direct hit, of course, I would have to buy one new computer and build the other. But then I could restore from my backup tapes. Presumably the UPS and Surge Protector company would pay for this. (APCC)

I can see all that with the "modem lights" applet on the GNOME panel.

I share by having the main computer with the modem connected to the other machines on a LAN. The other machines use the IP Forwarding in my iptables firewall, so I need only one modem anyway. Also, makes sharing the single telephone line more convenient.

How so? If I scrap one computer, I just move the modem to the new one. Perhaps, but the annoyance in finding a buyer is hardly worth it. I have a spare modem in my old computer and a spare NIC on the shelf. Not worth the hbuttle. I would more likely keep the modem as a backup to the DSL or T1.

-- .~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642. V PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939. ^^-^^ 15:20:00 up 46 days, 23:37, 3 users, load average: 4.36, 4.19, 4.10