2. Purpose of the mini-HOWTO

The purpose of this document is to guide you to make your PCTel HSP MicroModem work in linux.

First let me explain what is so "special" about these PCTel modems that made me write this guide.These modems fall in a special class of hardware, specifically made for M$-Windows systems, and have device drivers which are specific for  M$-Windows ...These modems are also called  "Winmodems" and are one of the most troublesome pieces of hardwares for Linux. Most of the winmodems do not work with linux (the manufacturers use patented technologies and so drivers for these modems cannot be developed as Open Source). For a few of these winmodems, drivers have been developed

The PCTel modems belong to this category and fall under linmodems.

NOTE: Though I am referring PCTel modems here, actually PCTel only manufactures the chips for these modems, so if have say, XXX modem and you get a

00:09.0 Communication controller: PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (rev 01)

when you issue the bash$ lspci command, then do not worry, you have what we call a PCTel linmodem.