I have a decision to make. I can either use this old 33.6 modem that came out of a Pentium machine or use my 56k winmodem. How do I compare how much system resouces each use. I am guessing this old modem is not a winmodem, it has jumpers and is an ISA, I had to take the jumpers off for windows to detect it. echo ATDT1234567 > COM3 in DOS and that worked on the 33.6, I heard that is a check that might give you a clue if your modem is a winmodem or not Also the 33.6 modem is detected and works in Mandrake Linux as the 56k does not. Where I am at I cannot connect at more than 28kbps so I am leaning towards just using the 33.6 since it works in both OSes. The 33.6 is listed as Archtek SmartLink Modem 3334BT Plug & Play in XP device manager. Any idea how to check if this 33.6 is a winmodem and how do I see the amount of resources it uses? Thanks

The 33.6 is probably a hardware modem meaning it does most of its own work and isn't constantly nagging windows for attention the way a winmodem does. Many of the modems with jumpers had a PnP setting with all the jumpers removed. That's probably why it's seen that way when you remove the jumpers. The 33.6 is going to use less resources but the difference is probably negligable. The 33.6 is probably a better modem but the 56 K is faster and speed is what it's all about. I'd go with the 56 unless you need it to function in dos or linux.

Thanks for the advice. That is what I am currently doing. So I assume that it is not easy to tell if a modem is a winmodem or not. Yeah I can't connect at anything about about 28kbps so the 56k does me no good. Plus like you said it uses less resources, more of a real modem, and it does work in Linux.. yippie.

Sometimes it'll show as a winmodem in modem properties but what shows there is what the manufacturer wrote to its firmware or bios or how the drivers are written. I don't think there's any independent software test to determine if it's a winmodem. Generally all new, inexpensive modems are winmodems.