The modem showed up the day before yesterday.  I cracked open the box yesterday and got it running in short order.  I purchased a Hawking PCI Modem, model HM92P.  Unlike the mentions it gets on the web, it doesn’t come with Linux drivers.  Bummer!  I was running short on time so I bopped over to http://Linuxant.com and purchased their modem driver.  I suspect that I could have gotten the modem working without it, but I was running short on time and patience.  I’m $20 in the hole, but the modem and computer works great.

Grandma is currently a NetZero subscriber for her Windows ME machine that we’re retiring.  NetZero doesn’t offer a Linux dial-up option so I signed Grandma up for http://copper.net.  Only $9.95 per month.  Easy setup too.  Modem stuff is done.

I transferred over the Thunderbird email directories and got that working under Ubuntu.  Trivial since I’ve done this many times.  Grandma’s almost ready to go live … except …

… except … that I was awoken last night with a thought.  Grandma’s old printer, which I don’t have here, feeds from a parallel port.   Her new computer doesn’t have a parallel port.  Only USB ports.  Dag nabbit!  No good deed goes unpunished.

So now, I have a decision to make: (1) new printer or (2) print server.  I’m not sure which will be cheaper and with less hassles?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 5:16 am and is filed under Hardware, Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.