Hi all, My Aunt wants me to buy and install a modem in her friends Compaq. It came with a NIC card but no modem and she wants to use a cheapy local dial up ISP.I would ASSUME its running 98 or ME as it is used and I dont know how old exactly. I know enough about them to stay away from USB or Winmodems but thats about it Any suggestions for trouble free operation? Jimi_l

Almost certainly you need to know the processor and type of slot the modem is going to plug into, before you purchase the modem. Quite possibly also the operating system. Have a look at the modems available and their minimum requirements. Modems are cheap items but you want it to work, when it is installed. Good luck - keep us posted.

Very well said Mike. PC's can be very fussy. A friend's mother and aunt have the exact same PC. The mother has a soft (Winmodem) inside. But the aunt's PC refused on several attempts to accept the modem I wanted it to use. I ended up putting a hard modem inside. Try to figure that one out.

3com 3com and then there is 3com. if you want good driver support, good hardware, and reliability go ahead and spend the extra few bucks and get a 3com. if they want a little more performance and an even better product then get a external 3com, they are pricey (well for a modem they are when you consider how slow they are compared to broadband) but they are the fastest of the slow technology and will work forever assuming that they don't get spiked.